A Light from a Distant World
by Andi Mason
Summary: Nosedive has always wanted a pet of his own since his encounter with Baby, but is he ready to handle the challenges and adventures that come from bringing a newcomer into the Pond? And how will his search for a pet impact the rest of the ducks… not to mention Dragaunus? Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Mighty Ducks characters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Perils of the Pet Store

Nosedive pressed his beak against the glass pane of the store window. Two brown and white balls of fur tumbled through the hay before leaping up and chasing each other around the cage. One of them tripped and rolled towards the window. After shaking its head and long floppy ears, it noticed Nosedive behind the glass. A high-pitched bark greeted him, and the puppy panted with its long tongue lolling from its mouth. Two big brown eyes stared up at him from the little furry face.

"Hey Dive!"

Nosedive spun around quickly. Mookie was waving to him as she walked towards him.

"Oh, hi Mookie."

"Like what you are doing on this side of the mall, Dive?" she asked with an inquisitive expression.

"Nothin', just looking," he said quickly. "Are you going back to Captain Comics? I'll give you a ride on my duck cycle."

Mookie looked over his shoulder at the window.

"Oh, so like they finally opened up the new pet store," she said moving past him to the window. "I like had a dog once, you know, but my parents gave it away when I was a kid. Totally not cool, right?"

"Yeah," he said, relaxing a little bit when he saw her admiring the puppies in the window. He didn't want to ruin his image by showing an interest in something so cute, but if Mookie thought they were adorable too that wasn't so bad.

"Come on, let's check it out," she said moving towards the door.

Nosedive hesitated for a moment, looking around cautiously. He didn't think Wildwing would be too crazy about him going into a pet store, but what could it hurt?

The inside of the store didn't smell too great, but there was a lot to look at. Mice and guinea pigs raced through tunnels in their cages. Puppies were barking loudly. Birds were singing.

"RAWK! Pick me, pick me," a cackling voice called.

Nosedive turned around and saw a brightly colored parrot sitting on a perch watching him with its beady eyes.

"Cool, it talks," Nosedive said.

"Look who's talking, birdbeak," the parrot cackled. "Polly, want a cracker? Birdbeak! Birdbeak!"

"Hey, who you calling Polly, clown feathers?" Nosedive asked angrily.

"Polly want a cracker?" the parrot squawked again flapping its wings.

"Like don't worry about it, Dive. Parrots can only repeat what they've heard. It doesn't even know what it's saying, man," Mookie assured him.

"It sure sounds like it knows," Nosedive muttered as he turned away.

"Don't worry about it, Polly! RAWK!" the parrot squawked as Nosedive walked towards the other end of the store.

"It's official; I hate parrots."

Mookie laughed and directed his attention to some of the other pets.

"Hey, look here's some relatives of those Saurians you're always fighting."

Nosedive looked at the row of cages behind a pane of glass. A boa was sliding over a log and slowly turned its head toward him. A shiver ran down his back as it stared at him and flicked its tongue out into the air with a seemingly hungry expression. In another cage, a chameleon was standing rigidly on a branch as it turned from green to brown. It shot its tongue out towards him, the slimy pick glob stuck to the glass where his face was.

"Is it just me, or do all of these animals hate ducks?"

"They're like reptiles, man. What do you expect?" Mookie said. "Come on, let's look at the cats and dogs."

Mookie asked one of the employees if she could hold one of the gray furry kittens in the large cage in the back of the store. They opened the door in the top and pulled one out for her. The kitten purred contentedly in her hands for a few minutes before Mookie held it out to Nosedive.

"Uh, that's okay, Mook," he said backing off.

"You're not like scared, are you, Dive?"

Nosedive frowned and stuck his hands out as Mookie placed the kitten in them. The squirming ball of fur mewed in his hands.

"Hey, ow!" he said. "It's sticking me with its claws."

"You're like too tense," Mookie insisted. "Just relax, Dive. You're making it nervous."

Before he could protest, Mookie pushed his hands and the kitten to his chest. The little furball climbed out of his hands and onto his shoulder. The kitten rubbed its back against his neck and beak as it began to purr.

"Okay, I guess it's kind of cute," he relented with a smile.

Suddenly his com beeped, and Nosedive flipped it open.

"What's going on, bro?"

"Drake One reported a disturbance in the desert and…. _what_ is on your shoulder?" Wildwing asked staring at Nosedive through the communicator.

"Uh…that's Mookie's cat," Nosedive said pulling the kitten from his shoulder and handing it to Mookie, who stared at him with a quizzical look her face.

"Don't worry about it Polly!" the parrot squawked loudly, and the puppies began to bark again.

"Dive, where are all those noises coming from?" Wildwing asked. "Nevermind, I probably don't want to know. Just get out to the desert on the double."

Nosedive sighed as he closed him com.

"Dive, like, why didn't you want Wing to know you were in a pet store?" Mookie asked.

"Wing's not too keen on the idea of pets," Nosedive said. "Look, I gotta go, all right?"

"Sure, are we still up for pizza tomorrow?"

"Totally!" Nosedive said as he ran out of the store towards his duck cycle.

* * *

"I don't get it," Tanya said as she tapped the spaceship with her knuckles. "It's completely empty."

"Not to mention, it's a worthless piece of junk," Mallory said, eyeing the blackened metal exterior of the spaceship.

Nosedive rode up on his duck cycle, having followed the tracking signal on his com all the way through the desert to his teammates.

"Whaz going on, fellow ducks?"

Tanya sneezed as he walked past her.

"Ugh, Nosedive, you smell like zoo," she said as she sneezed again.

Nosedive backed away from her as her allergies kicked in.

"You wouldn't have been in a pet store, would you?" Mallory asked accusingly.

"What pet store?" Nosedive scoffed. "Anaheim doesn't…"

"The new one at the mall," Mallory clarified. "I've seen you looking at it before."

Wildwing groaned.

"Okay, okay, so Mookie just wanted to take look and I went with her," he admitted. "Big deal!"

"Nosedive, you know we can't have any pets at the Pond, and Tanya has very sensitive allergies to earth animals."

"Well, what if there was one she wasn't allergic to?" Nosedive asked.

"Like what?" Tanya sniffed.

"I don't know. You weren't allergic to Baby," he said.

All of the ducks let out a groan at the mention of Baby. It had been almost a year since the cute little alien had turned into a monster and destroyed half of Anaheim.

"Dive," Wildwing said patiently, "I know you liked taking care of Baby, but he wasn't meant to be a pet. Most alien creatures aren't. That's why there weren't any pets on Puckworld. Besides, you saw what happened with Baby. We're too busy saving the world and playing hockey to take care of another living thing. It's too much responsibility."

"I got it, okay?" Nosedive replied sullenly. "So what are we doing out here anyway?"

"This spaceship crash-landed out here, and we're trying to figure out how and why," Duke said. "But there's nothin' to find. It's just an empty shell."

"Did you scan it with the mask, bro?" Nosedive asked.

"Yeah, and Duke's right. There are no clues about where it came from or how it got here. We haven't even seen any traces of who was piloting it."

"Answers come with time," Grin said patiently.

"Well, we need to get back to the Pond for practice," Wildwing sighed. "We'll just have to keep our eyes open for anything suspicious in Anaheim."

As the ducks drove away in the Migrator, a shadow appeared on the top of a nearby sand dune.

* * *

Nosedive raced his duck cycle along the edge of town where the roads opened up into a vast expanse of land. Out here he could ride at top speeds without worrying about Klegghorn sticking him with a speeding ticket. This was how he had been spending his mornings a lot lately – riding over hills with a warm breeze in his face.

But as he turned to ride around the base of hill, Nosedive saw a strange looking trailer nestled under a few trees. Suddenly, a bizarre magenta thing with tentacles appeared on the road ahead of him. Nosedive screeched to a halt just in time to avoid hitting the alien as he pulled out his puck launcher.

"You'd better watch all nine of your arms and legs, pal. You were almost roadkill," he warned.

"Sorry," the alien said as his three black eyes surveyed Nosedive. "I was hoping you could tell me where I am."

"This is Earth. Was that your spaceship out in the desert?"

"Oh, you found it, did you?" the alien asked. His voice sounded calm and friendly.

Nosedive lowered his puck launcher slightly.

"Yeah, you could have had a proper welcoming committee if you'd stuck around by your ship yesterday. But uh, who are you, dude?"

The magenta alien smiled and his face looked similar to a human's except for his three eyes and fin-shaped ears. He had two legs and wore boots at the bottom of these, but his arms were a series of tentacles.

"I'm Jorark, and I do apologize about the spaceship. It was rude of me to leave it out there in such a mess, but I had to take care of my cargo."

He gestured with one tentacle towards the trailer.

"What sort of cargo, are we talking about here?" Nosedive asked suspiciously.

"Nothing illegal," Jorark laughed. "You see I patrol the universe picking up lost creatures, and then I try to find them a good home. So it was imperative that I get out of the desert and transport my cargo to a less harsh location."

"So you've got real…like living things in there from around the universe?" Nosedive asked.

"Would you like to see for yourself?" Jorark asked.

Nosedive hesitated.

"I probably ought to let me teammates know that you're here," he said reaching for his com.

"Of course," Jorark said. "Maybe they could help me. I think this planet might be a good home for one of my poor misfit creatures."

"Yeah well, the last time we had a little alien dude here, it didn't turn out so great," Nosedive warned.

"Maybe you're right," Jorark sighed. "Maybe I should repair my ship and take off. But if someone could only take a look at my poor misfits. I hate for them not to be given a chance, and you probably know what kind of creature would do well here, don't you?"

Nosedive took his hand away from his com. The other ducks would no doubt tell Jorark to be on his way and forget about it, but…

"I guess I could just look real quick," Nosedive said hesitantly.

"Excellent!" Jorark said leaping toward his trailer and opening the door. "Just a quick peek then. I have so many rare and wonderful pets to show you."

Nosedive dismounted from his duck cycle and walked in the door. His vision was blinded by the sudden darkness that enveloped him. Jorark followed close behind him and pressed a button on the wall. Lights flickered on inside and Nosedive realized suddenly that the trailer was a lot bigger inside than it had look from the outside.

"This way," Jorark said, leading him down a hallway.

Pushing aside a curtain, Jorark revealed a room full of cages of various sizes with huge creatures and little ones. Nosedive started to follow the magenta alien down the narrow corridor in between the cages. One of the larger creatures snapped at him with rows of teeth and green slime dripping off its scales. A smaller creature with a shiny shell and furry legs began clawing at its cage as if it wanted to attack Nosedive.

"You know, some of these don't seem very friendly," Nosedive said. "I don't think we'd want them on Earth."

"Oh, they're just a bit grouchy after our rough landing yesterday," Jorark assured him. "Here, look at this little beauty."

He gestured with a tentacle toward a glass case in which a long, slender creature with transparent wings was curling and uncurling as it changed color. Nosedive stared at it hypnotically for a few minutes before shaking his head.

"Cool, but I don't know if it belongs on Earth."

"Well, I'm sure it would do fine under your care. It doesn't require much to survive. I'll sell it to you for 500 warbles."

"Whoa, wait one minute! I thought you were trying to find a home for these things?" Dive asked.

"I am, but you don't think I just give them away for free, do you?"

"Well, you kind of made it sound that way. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have that kind of money."

"I can exchange currency," Jorark said with an impatient sigh.

"That's not what I meant, man," Nosedive protested. "I mean that I don't have _enough_ money to spend on some creature that I don't even know what it is."

Jorark's gaze suddenly darkened.

"I see," he said, eyeing Nosedive coldly. "Well, you know, I stick to very clear rules when it comes to those whom I do, and do not, do business with."

One of his tentacles wrapped around Dive's wrist, snapping off his com, before Nosedive could react.

"If you're not a client, then you're merchandise."

Nosedive pulled away and took off running for the door. He reached down and suddenly realized that his puck launcher was gone. The door sealed itself before he reached it, and suddenly he felt a prick in his neck. He turned around and saw Jorark behind him with a needle that had been used to inject something into his blood.

"You creep!" Nosedive shouted as he tried to launch himself towards Jorark, but suddenly his legs gave out and he was falling…falling into darkness as he lost sight of his surroundings.

* * *

Mookie looked at her watch as she and Thrash shelved the last comics from a new shipment that they had received earlier that afternoon. It was almost five-twenty, and Nosedive had promised to meet them by five for pizza.

"He's probably just late," Thrash said with a laugh. "I mean, dude, Dive isn't exactly known for being on time."

"Yeah," Mookie said with a smile.

They continued working until all of the comics had been stocked and the boxes were empty. Mookie looked at the clock on the wall worriedly.

"Dive like always judges time by his stomach," she reminded Thrash. "He's never late when it comes to eating. Maybe you should like try to contact him."

Thrash walked behind the counter and pulled out the com that Nosedive had given him and Mookie to use in case of trouble.

"Hey Dive, are you there, man?"

Only static answered him.

"That's so weird, man. Okay well, I'm like going to try Wildwing," he told Mookie as he began messing with the com again. "Uh, hey, Wildwing, this is Thrash. Yeah is Dive with you?"

"No, I thought he was supposed to be eating with you," Wildwing's voice echoed from the device.

"He was, but we like don't know where he is," Thrash said.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"I saw him yesterday," Mookie interjected.

There was silence over the device for a moment.

"Uh, Wing, are you still there man?" Thrash asked.

"Yeah," replied a grim voice. "Look if you see Dive, tell him to contact me. I'm going out to look for him."

* * *

A heavy door clanged shut, and Nosedive winced as he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry, but he thought he saw Jorark standing behind some bars when he looked up.

"You might as well get some sleep, we'll be taking off soon. And we have a long intergalactic journey ahead of us."

"Ship…damaged…" Nosedive managed to groan.

"That's not my real ship," Jorark laughed. "That heap of junk in the desert was just a ploy to hide my real business of collecting unique creatures to sell on the black market. No, this is my real ship, which I keep hidden until I need a fast exit. By the time your friends realize that I've left the atmosphere, it'll be too late for them to catch up with me."

Nosedive tried to push himself up into a sitting position, but he felt so dizzy.

"Oh, and I'm sorry I couldn't find you your own cage, but I seem to be running short on space at the moment, so you'll just have to share. Play nice while I'm gone."

He disappeared from sight with a laugh, and Nosedive sat leaning over the floor, trying to stop the room from spinning. What kind of creature was he sharing a cage with?

Darkness threatened to close in on him again, and Nosedive covered his eyes as he lay back down on the floor.

 _Aw man, I feel like I'm going to be sick. But I gotta get out of here! Why did I listen to him? That was so stupid! Why didn't I call Wing?_

Nosedive had to stop beating himself up for a minute as the dizzy sensation overwhelmed him again. Suddenly he felt something nudge his boot, and Nosedive opened his eyes. His vision was beginning to clear a little. He raised his head and saw that he was inside a cage with glowing orange bars. It was maybe just big enough for him to stand up in, but where was his _roommate_ that Jorark had mentioned?

Pushing himself up again into a sitting position, Nosedive had to close his eyes as the room swirled again. Something brushed against him again, and his eyes snapped open.

"All right, who's there?" he demanded looking over his shoulder.

But there was nothing behind him.

 _Maybe Jorark was just trying to mess with me. Cause I don't see anything in here_ , he thought.

Nosedive sighed as he turned his head back around, but then his heart jumped and he let out a cry of surprise.

A white, furry thing with two white wings was sitting on his lap. Two bright, luminous green eyes stared into his face. Two paws stretched out on his chest, and its head leaned forward as a red tongue jutted out to lick his face.

"Okay, okay," Nosedive said as whiskers tickled his beak.

He pushed the creature back and opened his eyes. It was about the size of a small cat, and in many ways it reminded him of a lion cub with unusual white fur and startlingly bright eyes. It had two white wings like a swan's jutting from its back, though they were smaller than a swan's wings. His fingers were still resting in its fur from when he had pushed it away, and Nosedive marveled at how soft the fur seemed.

"You're kind of cute," he said. "I mean…compared to the other ugly monsters in here."

The cub stared at him, and Nosedive couldn't resist running his fingers through the soft fur. The little creature rumbled with a deep purr as it kept trying to rub its head against his hand.

"So where did you come from? I guess you can't talk, can you?"

The cub only purred as it pressed closer to Nosedive, rubbing against his chest. Suddenly a jolt knocked them both over as the room shook. The other creatures began roaring and screeching, but their complaints were drowned out by the sound of an engine revving for takeoff.

"Aw, man, so much for wanting a pet," Nosedive said looking around anxiously. "I never wanted to end up in a galactic pet store as one of the animals."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Fur and Feathers

Nosedive's hope of escape diminished more and more as he felt the ship leaving Earth's atmosphere. He managed to stand up and tried to find a weak spot in the cage, but the bars were too strong. A black furry creature with six eyes, a nose like a pig, and white gleaming jaws snapped at him from the next cage.

"Back off, freak!" Nosedive shouted, but he realized that he probably looked as strange to the other creatures as they did to him.

"Am I the only one who knows how talk in here?" he asked desperately.

The other creatures either growled at him or gave him no notice at all. The black furry monster in the cage next to him, snapped its jaws again.

"Is there at least someone in here who isn't interested in eating me?" Dive asked.

A scaly dragon-looking creature was pacing on four legs in a cage opposite to him. It hissed at him, baring its teeth as its eyes glowed with a hungry light.

"I'll take that as a _no_."

Nosedive sighed and sat back down on the floor. The winged, white lion cub in his cage was sitting on its haunches staring at him.

"I guess it's just you and me, kitty," he said. "Got any ideas about how we get out of here?"

The cub cocked its head and blinked. It began rubbing its face against his boot and purring. Another jolt shook the ship, and Nosedive heard a clatter as a device fell from the wall beside his cage and dangled in the air from a cord. The cub saw it too. Its tail lashed back and forth as the cub watched the metal object twist in the air. Then it jumped up trying to catch it in its paws, but it couldn't jump high enough.

Nosedive stared at the metal object for a moment before it rotated in the air and he saw a red button labeled "Emergency Containment Release." He jumped to his feet and began reaching his hand out of the bars, trying to catch hold of the device, but it was just too far.

Suddenly he felt something latch onto his leg, and Nosedive looked down to see the cub climbing up his body and onto his shoulder. Its attention was still locked on the moving object. Nosedive picked the cub up from his shoulder and lifted it towards the top of the cage. The space in between the bars was too narrow for the cub to fit through, but he might be able to lift it high enough to catch hold of the remote.

"Come on, kitty," he said stretching his arms as high as they would go.

The beast next to him roared and gnashed its teeth at both of them.

"Hey! Beat it jerk!" Nosedive yelled.

He felt the weight in his hands lessen suddenly and looked up to see the cub hanging onto the remote, pulling it inside their cage.

"Press the red button!" Nosedive called up at it. "Come on. No, don't bite it!"

The cub growled as it tried to grip the remote in its mouth, but finally its paw pushed the button and a loud buzzing sound filled the room. Nosedive grabbed the cub as the door to their cage opened. The bad news was that the doors to all the other cages were opening as well.

"Hang on, kitty," Nosedive said as he raced out the door with the other snarling creatures charging after him as soon as they realized they were free. The cub was partially in his grasp and half-clinging to his chest armor.

From another corridor, Jorark appeared, angrily waving his tentacles as he headed for Nosedive with a blaster in his hands.

"You! Stop right there!" he shouted. "I'll cut out your tongue for this, duck!"

"Then you're going to have to get in line," Nosedive said as the other beasts came running around the corner.

When they saw Jorark, their cries became louder, and they charged toward him. Nosedive took advantage of the distraction to race off down the hall and hide inside a room, shutting the door behind him. He could hear Jorark cursing and yelling as he fired his blaster amidst the screams of animals.

The cub jumped down from Nosedive's shoulder to investigate the room. Nosedive quickly saw that he was right where he needed to be. The words "Insta-portal Generators" were printed above two identical devices in the room. Each device had a projector like fixture that was aimed at a large rectangular doorway. Nosedive looked down at the controls and saw that he could open up a portal large enough for himself to get back to Earth.

There was also another control panel labeled Transport Portal Generators, but this one seemed to be for larger portals that the ship could travel through.

"So I guess this is how Jor _jerk_ gets around to so many different planets without using up all his fuel," Nosedive said, and he turned back to the Insta-Portal Generators. "Well, let's see what happen if I press this button."

It took several minutes for him to play around with the controls before he recognized a picture from Earth in the doorframe gateway. The cub leapt up onto the controls, pressing buttons under its paws.

"Whoa, hold it!" Nosedive said lifting it off the panel, but looking up, he saw that the second gateway had been opened and there were large cat-like beasts with wings moving around in the second doorframe.

"Hey, that must be your home," he said putting the cub down on the floor.

The cub walked towards the gateway, staring at the scene, but then it looked back at Nosedive.

"Go on, kitty-cat," he said. "What are you waiting for?"

The cub turned around as if it might walk back to him.

"Oh no, Wing said I can't have any pets. So go home! Shoo!"

The cub lowered its head with his scolding. It turned back towards the gateway and began to walk towards it. Nosedive sighed and moved towards his own gateway, but suddenly the door was forced open by a blast from behind.

"Get away from there, featherbrain!" Jorark shouted angrily.

"Hey, stay away from Earth from now on, Jorjerk!" Nosedive said as he jumped through the gateway.

He vaguely saw Jorark run after him with his tentacles raised, but a blinding flash of light enveloped his vision. The next thing Nosedive knew, he was tumbling over concrete and hit his head on something that felt as solid as a brick wall. He groaned and opened one eye to see that he had actually hit a brick wall – the one by the old construction site in Anaheim to be exact.

"Terrific, I'm back," he moaned.

When he finally sat up, it occurred to Nosedive that he might need to get moving in case Jorark decided to use the portal to come after him. Sore and aching all over, he got to his feet and started walking hurriedly in the direction of the Pond. The sun was starting to set, and Nosedive knew the others would be wondering where he was.

 _Maybe I shouldn't tell them what happened_ , he thought. _I don't really want them to know that I was stupid enough to fall for Jorark's trick, and I can just say that I had an accident on my duck cycle. Yeah, that's it._

Just as this thought occurred to him, he saw a cop car pull up alongside the road and stop.

"Hey, your brother's looking for you," Klegghorn said as he rolled down his window. "And I've got enough to do without searching for missing ducks."

"Relax, cap, I was just…taking a walk that's all."

"Oh yeah? Where's your com then?"

Nosedive looked down at his wrist, suddenly remembering that Jorark had taken his com. How would he explain that to the others?

"It smashed when I fell off my duck cycle," he lied. "I crashed it outside of town, okay?"

"Yeah, well maybe that will teach you to drive slower," Klegghorn said. "I'll call Wildwing and let him know that I found you."

But Nosedive wasn't paying attention. A flash of white behind a fire hydrant had caught his attention.

"Hey, are you okay?" Klegghorn asked, noticing Nosedive's expression.

"Yeah, um, I gotta get back to the Pond," Nosedive said backing away as he kept looking back at the fire hydrant.

"I'll give you a ride," Klegghorn offered.

"That's okay, cap…uh, I need to walk this off."

Klegghorn shook his head and rolled up the window as he drove on. Nosedive cautiously walked around to the other side of the fire hydrant, but there wasn't anything there.

"Man, I really got to get some sleep," he sighed.

Minutes later, Nosedive thought he'd never seen a sight look so welcoming as the Pond as he trudged up to the door. He looked behind him still feeling a little unsure of what he had seen earlier, but seeing nothing except the empty parking lot, he gave a sigh of relief and walked through the entrance.

"Ahh!"

Nosedive jumped back against the door as it closed when he caught sight of the white cub sitting on the steps leading to the hockey rink.

"I told you to go home," he whispered.

The cub stared up at him innocently, swishing its tail.

"Look, Tanya's allergic, and I can't tell Wing that I brought an alien to the Pond. So you can't stay here!"

The cub stood up and rubbed against his boots, purring again. Nosedive looked around and sighed.

"There you are," a familiar voice said interrupting his thoughts.

Nosedive jumped guiltily as he looked up and saw Mallory coming towards him. He looked down, but the cub was gone. And he wondered for a moment if he had been imagining things.

"Oh, hey, Mal," he said.

"You'd better have a good reason for disappearing all day. Wildwing's been searching frantically all evening. And where's your com?"

"It broke, okay," Nosedive replied.

"What do you mean it broke?" Mallory asked putting her hands on her hips.

"Could you just tell Wing that I'm back?"

"No need."

They both turned around as Wildwing walked through the door with Tanya, Grin and Duke following him.

"Where have you been, Dive?" he asked angrily. "Why didn't you meet Thrash and Mookie when you were supposed to?"

Nosedive's stomach growled as he remembered that he had never had dinner.

"I didn't mean to be gone so long," he insisted. "I just…uh…I was riding outside Anaheim this morning, and I ran into a little trouble. My com broke, and I had to walk back."

"Klegghorn said you had an accident on a duck cycle. Are you okay?" Wildwing asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a little sore and tired," Nosedive said with a shrug.

"I still don't understand why you were gone the _whole_ day," Mallory said.

"I think I was knocked unconscious for a bit, okay?" Nosedive said defensively.

"So is the duck cycle fixable?" Tanya asked.

Nosedive suddenly realized that she wasn't sneezing. _But she's allergic to cats and like every animal on the planet_ , he thought. _I must have just imagined seeing that cub here if Tanya's not sneezing_.

"Uh, I think it landed in a ditch…I'm not really sure," Nosedive said unhelpfully. "Look, I just want to lie down for awhile, all right?"

The other ducks stepped out of his way and let him head towards the locker room elevator. Nosedive sighed wearily as he punched the button for the elevator and stepped inside.

A soft mew interrupted the silence and he looked down to see the cub jumping on the elevator with him. As the doors closed, Nosedive snatched the cub up in his hands and stared at it.

"Whoa, so you really are here, and Tanya's not allergic to you," he said.

The cub swished its tail back and forth as it watched him.

"Well, I guess I can't get rid of you, but if Wildwing finds out, I am so dead," he groaned. "You just gotta keep hiding like you have been, okay?"

The elevator reached the Ready Room and Nosedive hurried out with the cub in his arms. He kept looking back over his shoulder all the way to his room where he collapsed on his bunk in relief. The cub began wandering around, sniffing everything curiously. Nosedive yawned.

"Let's just sleep for awhile, okay kitty? And then I'll find us something to eat."

* * *

"Hey Dive. Come on, wake up."

Nosedive groaned but finally opened his eyes to see Wildwing standing over his bunk. He sat up bolt upright and looked around the room. The cub was nowhere in sight.

"Whoa, little brother, where's the fire?" Wildwing asked with a laugh. "You sure have been on edge since yesterday. Are you sure you're all right?"

Nosedive put his hand to his head which ached a little.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, fine, bro. How long have I been asleep?"

"All night and most of this morning. Here, Thrash and Mookie sent you half of their leftover pizza," Wildwing said thrusting a pizza box towards him.

"Thanks," Nosedive said taking it from him managing only half a smile.

Wildwing stared at him questioningly.

"What is it, Dive? You don't seem like yourself."

Nosedive stared at the pizza box, wishing he could tell Wildwing what had happened the other day, and he felt the secret weighing down on him. But what would he say? How could he explain?

"Guess I just need to get back on the ice," Nosedive said.

Now Wildwing really stared at his brother, who usually complained about practice.

"Why don't you just get some more rest," Wildwing said as he exited the room.

Once his brother was gone, Nosedive looked around his room. The cub did not come out of hiding.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty," he called softly.

No response, and suddenly it occurred to Nosedive that the cub might have escaped when Wildwing entered his room.

 _Aw man, I am gonna be in so much trouble!_

* * *

Duke sat on the sofa in the rec room cleaning his saber when suddenly he froze. His instincts told him that he was being watched, and not just watched, but studied. He turned around and surveyed the room as he rose from the sofa.

"Who's there?" he asked, still grasping his saber.

Turning back to the couch, he suddenly leapt back with his saber raised. A small, white lion-cat thing was watching him from the top of the sofa with its green eyes locked on him.

"Duke, have you seen my puck canon?" Mallory asked as she walked into the room.

The ex-thief turned to meet her gaze and saw her stare at him with a confused expression.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You don't see it?" he asked as he turned back towards the sofa, but the creature was gone.

"See what?" Mallory asked.

"The...," but words failed him.

Duke searched the room, but there was no mysterious animal in sight.

"You really didn't see it?" he asked.

"I'll just go ask Tanya," Mallory said as she left the room quickly.

Duke plopped back down on the sofa and shook his head.

"I must be starting to lose it," he thought in dismay.

* * *

Grin was mediating the Ready Room when he suddenly opened one eye. Something was disturbing his inner peace, but the room was utterly silent. Looking around, he could not see anything. He tried to close his eyes again and focus.

A few minutes later he opened his eyes and stood up. He remained standing, surveying the room from top to bottom. Something was out of place, but he could not see it.

Wildwing walked into the room, studying the schedule for their upcoming games.

"Is something wrong, Grin?" he asked when he saw the huge duck standing rigid and listening.

"I sense… a presence," Grin said still searching the room with his eyes.

Wildwing looked around.

"Okay, well, I'm here."

"No, an unfamiliar presence that has disturbed my inner peace and tranquility," Grin insisted.

Wildwing was silent for a moment as he looked around too but with a skeptical expression on his face.

"Well, something's bothering Nosedive too. Maybe you'll figure it out before I do," Wildwing sighed as he moved to check something on Drake One. "Maybe he knows something about this _presence_."

"I shall ask him," Grin said suddenly as he walked off in a decided manner.

* * *

Tanya was working in her lab on a new special weapon against Dragaunus when she thought that she heard someone walk up behind her. She turned around, expecting to see Wildwing or maybe Mallory coming to check on her progress, but no one was there. Tanya frowned and then went back to her work.

She turned to pick up a tool from the table beside her when she froze. A white, fuzzy animal with wings was playing with her tools. It looked up at her with its big green eyes, and Tanya backed away expecting to sneeze at any moment. She shut her eyes, but the sneeze never came. Tanya opened her eyes again, but the animal was gone. She adjusted her glasses and looked all around the room, but it was like she was all alone.

* * *

Nosedive wandered nervously around the halls of the Pond looking for the cub when suddenly he turned a corner, and Grin was standing there with his arms crossed. _Oh, great. I should have known I couldn't keep something like this from Grin_ , Nosedive thought.

"What is it?" Grin asked.

"Hey, Grinster," Nosedive said forcing a smile. "Shouldn't you be meditating or something?"

"I was," Grin replied. "But my meditation was interrupted."

Nosedive's smile faded. Grin didn't need to say much for him to get the picture. The huge duck stood there waiting for Nosedive to explain.

"Look, I'm sorry," Nosedive sighed. "I didn't intend to bring it back here. It just sort of followed me."

"You lied to your brother," Grin reminded him.

Nosedive winced. Grin's tone was emotionless, but those words hurt just as much as if Grin had been yelling at him.

"I know. I messed up big this time," Nosedive admitted. "I'll go talk to him."

Grin nodded, seemingly satisfied.

Suddenly a yell from down the hall cut through the weighty silence, and Nosedive looked up worried.

"Aw man, not Tanya's lab," he said as he took out running with Grin right behind him.

When they reached the lab, Tanya was frantically trying to explain to Wildwing, Mallory, and Duke that she had seen a ghost.

"Every time I look away, it's gone, but then it's right there a few minutes later," she moaned.

Nosedive covered his face with his hand.

"Slow down, Tanya, you're not making sense. What's there?" Wildwing asked.

"I don't know what it is," Tanya insisted. "It looks like a white animal of some kind, but it doesn't make me sneeze. It must be a ghost."

"Tanya, you don't believe in ghosts," Mallory reminded her.

"I do now," Tanya insisted.

"Hey, I saw it, too," Duke said. "Right when Mallory came into the rec room earlier, it disappeared."

Wildwing used the mask to scan the room, but he could find nothing.

"I'm sorry, Tanya. I don't see anything."

Tanya shook her head miserably. Grin elbowed Nosedive.

"Uh, I think I can explain what's going on," Dive finally said walking towards them with his head hung low. "And don't worry, Tanya. It's not a ghost and…um, you're not seeing things."

"Well, that would have been nice to know earlier," Duke said angrily.

Nosedive took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened after his morning ride, even the parts where he knew he had really been stupid. The others listened without interrupting him, and when he was finished, Nosedive took a deep breath. Surprisingly, he actually felt better. The weight was off his chest at last.

"Nosedive, it's bad enough that you were gone all day yesterday, but do you have to tell a story just to make Tanya and Duke look bad?" Mallory asked.

"I'm not making anything up! I'm serious, Mal," Nosedive insisted. "You don't believe me?"

"I do," Duke said, casting a disapproving look at Mallory and Nosedive. "You're lucky you got away yesterday. That Jorark is a bad character, Dive. He's wanted in six galaxies for kidnapping."

"But Duke, how could there be a strange alien creature in the Pond without Drake One going off?" Mallory asked skeptically.

"Look, I didn't mean to bring it back with me," Nosedive said apologetically. "But it's here. It just has this funny way of disappearing when it wants to."

"Still, shouldn't Wildwing be able to see it with the mask?" she asked.

Nosedive bent down with searching gaze.

"Here kitty, kitty," he said coaxingly.

Nothing happened, and Mallory crossed her arms. Tanya and Duke looked around the room, eager to prove that they weren't crazy.

"Maybe it left the room," Nosedive said as he stood up. "It usually comes when I call."

Mallory leaned back against the table, but something white caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned and leapt back into Wildwing. Most of the ducks had their weapons out in seconds as the cub sat on the table and began licking its paw to give itself a bath.

"Is that real enough for you, Mallory?" Duke asked.

"Okay, it's real," she admitted.

Nosedive darted in front of their puck launchers and Duke's saber.

"Wait, don't hurt it!" he said lifting the cub into his arms.

"Nosedive, put that thing down!" Wildwing insisted. "You don't know what it's capable of."

"Wing, I was locked in a cage with this thing for at least an hour. If it had really wanted to hurt me, it's had plenty of chances," Nosedive reminded him.

"Yeah, well Baby seemed pretty cute and innocent at first too," Wildwing replied.

Nosedive still didn't put the cub down. Tanya walked forward and reached out cautiously to stroke its head. The cat purred and closed its eyes.

"You know, it is pretty cute," she said.

"A moment ago, it was a horrifying ghost to you," Mallory insisted.

"Well, I didn't know how it got here," Tanya said sheepishly. "And I couldn't figure out why I wasn't allergic to it. I guess I still don't understand that part, but at least I know I'm not going crazy."

Duke lowered his saber and put it back on his shoulder. He gently stroked the cub's back and inspected the small wings.

"Well, is it a cat or a bird?" he asked Nosedive, who shrugged.

"Jorark didn't call it anything in particular, but I think it needs a name."

"Hold up, you don't name something unless you intend to keep it. And we can't keep it, right?" Mallory said turning to Wildwing.

Wildwing did not reply with the definite "no" that she was looking for.

"The problem is where do we send it if we're not going to keep it?" he said with a sigh. "We can't unleash something like this on the human world."

Mallory looked to Grin, but he had taken the cub from Nosedive and was holding it in his arms. He wasn't even stroking its fur, but it was still purring.

"Grin, you remember what happened with Baby. Surely, you're not going to get sucked into this again?" Mallory asked.

"There is no darkness inside of this creature," he said calmly. "It is wild, but not evil."

Mallory closed her beak. She couldn't argue with Grin's instincts.

"I used to have a guide to creatures from other galaxies," Tanya mused. "If I could find it, I might be able to figure out what this thing is."

"Then you'd better start looking," Wildwing suggested. "I want to know how this thing is able to hide from the Mask. And if it's going to get any bigger."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Alien Pet Care 101

Once it was decided that the cub was a girl, there was some debate over an acceptable name. Duke suggested "Angel" because of the wings, but Nosedive was for "Snowball." The resulting name was SnowAngel, though Dive frequently referred to the cub as "Snow" and Duke preferred "Angel."

There was also some concern over how Phil would react when he saw their new pet - which try as Wildwing might to remind the other ducks that Snow (as she will be called henceforth by the narrator) was not a pet, they all still thought of her in that way. However, Phil had yet to see the strange little alien, because she seemed to disappear whenever he walked into the room. So in this way, the ducks were spared from Phil trying to use Snow in a ridiculous publicity stunt of some kind.

Her ability to seemingly vanish entirely from a room was still disconcerting to many of the ducks, but Snow always reappeared when called for. Her favorite activity seemed to be watching TV in the rec room with the ducks, which is what the ducks were doing one particular Tuesday night after a game.

Wildwing sat on one end of the couch holding ice over his knee which had been injured during the game when one of the opposing team's players collided with him near the goal. Wildwing's knee had actually begun hurting him after a battle with the Saurians, but now it seemed to be getting worse with the additional stress put on it in hockey.

"Wing, maybe you should see a doctor," Duke suggested without looking up from his book. "Or at least let the Medicom scan your knee."

Wildwing shifted the ice pack on his knee and winced.

"I'm fine. It just needs some rest," he insisted.

Duke turned another page in his book and said nothing more about it. Nosedive cast an anxious glance at his brother. He knew that Wildwing had discussed his knee with Tanya, but afterwards, Wildwing had never wanted to say anything more about it. Nosedive couldn't help but think that this might mean the issue was more serious than his brother would admit.

Nosedive's hand reached down to stroke Snow where she had been resting in his lap, but he realized that she was no longer there. Looking up, he saw the cub walking across the floor towards the place where his brother was seated on the sofa. Nosedive tensed, and Duke looked up from his book to watch. Snow had never gone anywhere near Wildwing before, and Wildwing had never indicated that he wanted her to be near him.

Except for the noise on the TV, the room seemed to grow uncomfortably quiet as Snow jumped onto the empty seat beside Wildwing. But that wasn't close enough. Her next move was to climb onto his lap. Wildwing looked down in surprise as Snow moved dangerously close to his sore knee. Nosedive kept waiting for the moment when Wildwing would push her off, but it didn't come.

Snow curled up on Wildwing's lap and lay perfectly still except for her gentle breathing. After a few minutes, Wildwing leaned his head back on headrest of the couch and closed his eyes. Duke went back to reading his book, and Nosedive turned his attention back to the TV.

It was Snow's way to pick someone with whom she would spend the evening and the rest of the night, usually she rotated between Grin, Nosedive, Duke and Tanya. Mallory had made it abundantly clear that she did not like Snow being near her, and Snow appeared to understand this concept very well.

This was the first night, however, that Snow had chosen Wildwing. And when Wildwing walked off to bed that night, Snow followed him. When Wildwing lay down in his bunk, Snow jumped up beside him and lay down.

"What made you decide to pick me all of the sudden?" Wildwing asked with a groan as he set a fresh ice pack on his knee.

Snow did not answer but already seemed to be asleep beside him. Wildwing laid his head down and fell into a restless sleep. In his sleep, he dreamed that the ice pack on his leg had become a raging fire that was consuming his leg. There seemed to be nothing that he could do to put it out, and even though he truly felt like he was in pain, he could not seem to wake up.

* * *

"Wing," Nosedive called as he knocked on his brother's door. "Hey, bro, are you all right in there?"

It was late morning. Too late for Wildwing to still be in bed. He was usually one of the first ones awake. Nosedive opened the door to his brother's room and flipped on the light. He stared in surprise at what he saw.

Wildwing was groaning restlessly on his bunk, seemingly caught in a deep sleep. The ice pack that had been over his knee was lying discarded on the floor. And Snow was lying down over his legs with her tongue licking his knee. There was a perfect set of tiny red incisions where it looked as though she had bitten his knee, but there was very little blood as she appeared to be licking the feathers on his knee clean.

"Hey, get off!" Nosedive said, angrily charging towards her.

Snow raised her head and snarled, stopping Nosedive in his tracks. She had _never_ done anything like that before.

"Bad cat!" Nosedive scolded as he picked up a hockey stick to swat her with.

Snow refused to move as she continued to lick Wildwing's knee. Nosedive decided to try waking his brother instead, but Wildwing would not open his eyes.

"What did you do to him?" Nosedive demanded. "Wing will see that you get kicked out for good now. And Mallory will be ready to get you stuffed and mounted on the wall. Come on, get off!"

Nosedive tried picking her up, but Snow clawed his arm, and Nosedive leapt back with his arm bleeding. When Nosedive raised the hockey stick again, Snow finally moved away from Wildwing's knee and crawled under the blanket on his bunk. Wildwing stirred and opened his eyes.

"Dive, what are you doing?" he asked when he saw his brother poised over him with the hockey stick.

"Snow was doing something to your knee, and I couldn't get her to stop," Nosedive said as he lowered the stick. "And you wouldn't wake up, bro."

Wildwing sat up and looked at his knee where the fabric in his pants had been chewed away to reveal the feathers on his leg. He reached down and touched it hesitantly.

"I'm sorry, bro," Nosedive sighed. "I don't know why Snow started acting so weird."

Wildwing didn't reply as he pushed the blanket aside and stood up, testing the weight on his knee. To Nosedive's surprise, Wildwing laughed.

"Dive, my knee… it doesn't hurt anymore," he said.

"But bro, you've been bitten," Nosedive said pointing at the spot where Wildwing's knee was starting to bleed just a little.

"Well, yeah, I guess I do feel that, but I mean the deep pain that's been troubling me for weeks. It's gone, and look, I can bend down like the way I have to in the goal, and it doesn't hurt," Wildwing said excitedly as he squatted down in his goalie position.

Wildwing looked up at his brother, but his smile faded when he saw the scratch marks on Nosedive's arm.

"What happened to you?"

"Like I was saying, I tried to get Snow to move, and she's scratched me," Nosedive explained. "But I guess she was helping you. That's so weird. I didn't know she could do that."

"Where is she?" Wildwing asked after he handed Nosedive a towel to wrap around his arm.

Nosedive looked back at the blanket which Snow had crawled under, but it lay flat over the bed now.

"She's gone, disappeared," he sighed. "I probably made her mad 'cause I interfered."

Wildwing looked around the room, but once he realized how late it was he quickly decided to get moving.

Tanya met them and the others inside the Ready Room with a book in her hand.

"I found it!" she announced excitedly. "Snow is a leopantala, a rare species of lion that lives in remote areas on various planets. And listen to this: Once a cub becomes attached to a "pride" or a group of beings who may …or may not be the same species as the leopantala, the cub will form strong ties of loyalty to aforementioned pride. Before reaching the adult stage, the leopantala is able to almost entirely disappear as a cub. This is a defensive mechanism that helps young cubs survive when they are startled or threatened, but after the age of six months, the cub is no longer able to perform this miraculous ability and begins to grow into an adult."

"Six months?" Wildwing asked. "Well, how big do they get?"

"It says that they can grow to be at least 4 1/2 feet in height, 12 to 14 feet in length from the head to the tail, and they can weigh up to 750 to 900 pounds. In other words, bigger than a Siberian tiger from this planet," Tanya said.

Nosedive gave a low whistle.

"900 pounds?" Wildwing repeated.

"Yep, but there's more," Tanya said. "This says there are rumors that a leopantala can possess special abilities which continue to develop as it reaches maturity. The only one that it mentions here is healing."

Wildwing looked down at his knee.

"What does it say about that?"

"It says: There was once a report that a leopantala healed a lost traveler's broken arm after lying beside the victim all night and cleaning out the wound. The next day the victim reported having strange dreams and being trapped in a very deep sleep, but his arm was better than it ever had been before," Tanya read. "I think this part is just myth though, Wildwing. I mean magical healing abilities?"

"Uh, Tanya, there's something that I need to tell you…"

* * *

Although Wildwing's attitude toward Snow had changed a great deal since he had woken up that morning, the cub did not reappear throughout the rest of the day.

"I don't like it, man," Nosedive sighed. "She got really mad when I interfered. What if she never comes back?"

"If what Tanya said about the strength of the bond created between a cub and its pride is true, then she'll be back," Duke insisted calmly.

Nosedive reopened his comic book and lay back down on the couch with a worried expression.

"The problem is what to do with her when she gets older," Wildwing said as he walked into the conversation.

"But bro, I thought you were totally cool with Snow now?"

"I am, Dive, but that doesn't change the fact that she's going to get really, _really_ big. And apparently this disappearing thing won't last forever."

"Yeah, but she won't be as big as Baby," Nosedive insisted. "She'll still be able to live inside the Pond."

"That depends on exactly how much of a 'wild' animal she is," Wildwing cautioned. "An animal that big can be dangerous even if it isn't trying to hurt someone."

"Chill out, Wing. Snow would never hurt anyone," Nosedive said defensively.

Duke and Wildwing shared a less certain look.

"She already scratched you once, Dive," Wildwing reminded him, and Duke quickly added,

"Kid, Angel is a beautiful creature. And you know that I'm as fond of her as anyone. You could be right about her, but your brother's got a point too. We don't know how she's gonna behave when she's older…and bigger. It's not like we have to kick her out, but we need be cautious."

"Her name is Snow," Nosedive retorted as he rose from the couch and walked back to his room.

He'd been over this whole conversation with Baby, and he didn't feel like repeating it with Snow. Or else she might end up in the freezer too.

When he reached his room, Nosedive plopped down on his bunk with his comic book. Suddenly, he got a funny feeling as he sat there reading, and he put the comic book down. Just behind its pages was Snow, watching him with her head cocked in that curious manner.

"Hey, pretty girl! You came back to Uncle Dive," he reached out hesitantly to pet her.

To his relief, Snow closed her eyes and purred as he stroked her fur.

"Look, I'm sorry that I tried to stop you earlier. I didn't know that you were helping Wing. That was pretty cool. So thanks."

Snow opened her eyes and walked forward. She climbed up his chest and sniffed his beak.

"Hey, what are you doing, silly cat?"

Snow watched his beak move with intense concentration. It was like she was suddenly fascinated by every word that he said.

"What? Do I have something in my teeth?"

The cub's eyes stared at him, and her round ears perked up. Nosedive laughed and scooped her up in his arms.

"Whoa, is it just me or have you gotten heavier?"

Snow mewed and rubbed against his chest.

"Okay, well don't tell Wildwing. He won't like it if you start getting bigger."

Nosedive carried her into the rec room where Duke and Wildwing were still sitting.

"Look who I found," he said cheerfully.

Snow turned her head and stared at his beak again with rapt attention.

Duke put down his book and sat up as he stretched out his hands and stole the cub from Nosedive.

"There's my Angel," he said softly as he stroked her head.

Nosedive rolled his eyes, but he let it go. Duke might talk tough about what they'd have to do when Snow got bigger, but he was a sucker for her whenever she was around.

Snow played right along as she purred and rubbed her head against his beak.

"Where have you been hidin' sweetheart? Your Uncle Duke sure missed you."

Opening her eyes and pulling her head back, Snow suddenly stared up at his beak with the same intense gaze that she had used on Nosedive. Her eyes were so focused it was like she was soaking in everything he said.

"What's with you?" Duke laughed when he noticed.

"She did the same thing to me," Nosedive insisted. "I don't get it."

Snow turned her head to watch Nosedive. It seemed that she was fascinated by whoever was speaking.

Wildwing rose from his seat and walked closer. He stretched out his hand and stroked her back. Snow purred even louder.

"I guess I owe you one," Wildwing admitted.

As she had done with Duke and Nosedive, Snow opened her eyes and watched him with a curious gaze.

"It's like…she's studying us when we talk," Duke finally said after watching Snow for several minutes. "There's something almost intelligent about that look in her eyes. Was there anything else about her kind in that guide to galactic creatures that Tanya found?"

"It's encrypted or something," Wildwing said dismissively. "She's trying to recover it somehow. I don't understand it honestly."

Duke shrugged and went back to stroking Snow's fur as she lay down on his lap and purred.

* * *

"Shoo! Go away, stupid furball!" Mallory swatted at the cub as it followed her into the training room.

"Whoa! Easy there Mal," Nosedive said as he moved to defend his furry friend. "She just wants to play."

"Play?" Mallory scoffed. "I have to train. So you tell that furball to find someplace else to play or sit quietly while I train."

Nosedive turned to pick up Snow, but then he froze and watched in amazement. Snow had walked over to the side of the room and was sitting very obediently with a watchful gaze. Mallory eyed the cub suspiciously.

"Just get her out of here already, Dive."

"Aw, come on girlie-girl. Look at her. What's so bad about letting her watch?"

"Because it's…it's just weird."

Nosedive looked back over at Snow, who was still sitting bold upright with an attentive gaze. He turned around and headed for the exit.

"You know what? I'm just gonna let you handle this one on your own, girlie-girl."

Mallory glared at him as he left the room with a smirk. Then she turned back to the small animal watching her with a curious gaze.

"Don't move," she warned angrily.

Pushing the little spectator from her mind, Mallory began her training session. She started with the punching bag to work on the strength in her arms and the accuracy of her attacks. Every so often, she turned around only to see that Snow was still sitting in the same place and still watching her.

"Why am I suddenly so interesting?" Mallory asked.

She walked closer to Snow who stood up on all fours with an eager gaze.

"Oh, so you wanna train too. Is that it, furball?"

Snow moved from paw to paw with restless anticipation.

"Fine. Get out here."

Darting with a sudden rush of speed, Snow ran up onto the mat where Mallory was standing. She stopped and rose up on her hind paws – almost too eagerly because she almost lost her balance and toppled over. Mallory laughed in spite of her earlier annoyance.

"Nice try, but you have four feet for a reason. You'd better stick with them."

Snow cocked her head and watched Mallory attentively.

"All right, so what can you do? I've never trained with a furball before."

The cub ran around in a circle and stopped to look back at Mallory as if daring her to chase her.

"You wanna play tag?" Mallory sighed. "Of course."

Nevertheless, Mallory charged forward, and Snow darted away like a white blur. When Mallory finally became too tired to chase the cub anymore, she stopped to catch her breath. Snow whirled around and jumped onto Mallory's back. This unexpected move threw Mallory off balance, and she fell to the mat.

Mallory rolled over trying to catch the cub, but Snow avoided her grasp before she finally ran up onto Mallory's chest. Staring into Mallory's eyes with her own bright and intense gaze, Snow leaned over Mallory face. Then she moved forward and started to lick Mallory's face and beak.

"Okay, that's a little much," Mallory laughed. "Stop, please! You win, all right?"

Snow stopped licking her, but started to rub her head against Mallory's beak affectionately.

"Nosedive will never let me hear the end of this if he sees us playing together. I can't believe I'm actually starting to think that you're cute, furball."

The cub backed away and let her sit up, but Snow was now watching Mallory's beak intently. The door opened and Mallory jumped up quickly, brushing the fur from her top. The other ducks walked into the room for a group training session. Snow bounded over to Nosedive and rubbed against his boots.

"Was Mallory mean to you?" he asked affectionately.

Snow just purred.

"Why that cat likes you so much Nosedive, I'll never understand," Mallory said as she shook her head.

"Okay team, let's focus," Wildwing said as he called their attention to him. "Tanya's got some new equipment set up for our training sessions, and….hey!"

Snow was playing around Wildwing's boots with seemingly limitless energy. Mallory clapped her hands.

"Snow, sit!"

The cub's ears shot up immediately as she looked at Mallory and moved away from Wildwing. Snow sat down obediently and waited.

"Whoa, when did you teach her how to do that?" Duke asked.

"I didn't," Mallory insisted. "Nosedive must have taught her. She just does it whenever I ask."

"It wasn't me," Nosedive protested. "The last time I tried to teach her a trick, she just ignored me."

"If we could get back to training?" Wildwing persisted.

The other ducks grew quiet and gave him their attention.

"Okay, now Tanya's set up these mirrors so we can watch our movements during pair fighting."

Nosedive groaned, but Wildwing ignored him.

"That's right, I said pair fighting. And just for that, little brother, I'm sticking you with Grin."

Grin smiled smugly as Nosedive shot him a glare. Grin always won.

"Tanya, if you'd like to go ahead and uncover the mirrors, we'll get started. You can train with me today, and Mallory, you're with Duke."

Duke sighed, and Mallory shot him a glare.

"You'd better fight fair this time, L'Orange," she warned.

"I always fight fair," he muttered. "But someone's a sore loser here."

Tanya shot a grateful look at Wildwing. She was not always the best one-to-one fighter, and besides Grin, Wildwing was the most patient with her in training. Nosedive would just take her down and gloat about it - although she had actually beaten him once. Mallory lost her patience too quickly with Tanya, and Duke, well, his style of fighting was so foreign to her that Tanya often ended up confused and frustrated. Not to mention that he was really, really good at it.

Snow watched them take their formations quietly, and as the fighting began, she watched them with eager anticipation. Then she caught sight of their reflections in the mirrors, and she darted towards the huge mirrors.

Nosedive was just being pinned by Grin for the second time, when he suddenly noticed Snow acting strangely in front of the mirror. When Grin let him up, Nosedive broke away for mat and hurried towards her.

"What's wrong, girl?"

Snow was running back and forth, pawing at her reflection. Then she noticed Nosedive's reflection and that seemed to unsettle her even more. Snow ran along the mirror, looking from her reflection to Nosedive's, and then from Nosedive to his reflection. Her fur was standing on end and her ears lay flat on her head.

"Snow, come on baby-girl, what's the matter?"

Nosedive crouched down to pet Snow, but she shrank back and looked at her reflection again.

"Dive! We're in the middle of training," Wildwing reminded his brother.

"Yeah, just a sec. Something's really got Snow spooked."

"Aw, she just doesn't understand what a reflection is," Tanya said dismissively. "Probably thinks it's another animal."

But Nosedive wasn't so sure. Snow seemed really distressed about something, but he couldn't tell what it was. Duke must have noticed it too, because he tried to reach out and comfort the cub.

"What's the problem, Angel?"

Snow glanced at him with her ears flattened back against her head. Then without warning, she darted across the room and started pawing at the door until its motion sensors finally picked up on her presence and opened. Snow disappeared out of the room at top speed.

"All right, let's get back to training," Wildwing insisted. "Don't worry, Dive. She'll be fine."

Nosedive returned to his mat reluctantly. He had never seen Snow look so upset before, except for maybe the time that he made her angry when she was healing Wildwing.

* * *

A whole day passed since Snow disappeared, and Nosedive found himself wandering around inside the Pond, searching for her in odd places. He kept hoping that she would turn up.

He had ended up wandering the halls of one of the lower levels where there wasn't much of anything except the pipes above him.

Suddenly, a white tail dipped down into view from the pipes running above his head, and Nosedive looked up. He recognized the white fur of the small shape lying on a pipe overhead.

"Snow? What are you doin' up there? I've been looking for you everywhere!"

Nosedive looked for a way to climb up after her, but there wasn't anything big enough for him to hold onto.

"Come on down, Snow. Everybody's worried. Mallory won't say so, but I know she is."

Snow continued to lay still with her head resting on her paws. Her tail hung down over the pipe in a limp and depressed manner.

Nosedive frowned and looked for something to stand on. He grabbed a box and moved it under the pipe, but when he stood on it to reach her, she moved over to the next pipe.

"Okay, now that's not fair. Come on, Snow. What's wrong, girlie-girl?"

The cub lifted her head slightly and met his gaze with a sad expression in her eyes. Her mouth opened, and Dive waited for her to hear her familiar mew – but instead, he heard…

"I am different."

Nosedive gaped at her and shook his head. He must be imagining things.

"Now I really need to lay off the triple spicy tacos," he muttered.

Snow got to her feet and walked towards him. Nosedive stared up into her eyes, and suddenly recognized an intelligent gaze.

"Why am I different?" Snow asked in a distinct voice.

"Wha…I…uh," Nosedive stammered.

Snow cocked her head, now looking rather confused.

"You can talk," Nosedive finally blurted out dumbly.

This revelation seemed to have no effect whatsoever on Snow, but she finally jumped down onto his shoulder, still waiting for an answer to her question.

"We should, um… uh, the others should hear this," Nosedive decided as he carried her down the hall.

Snow crawled down into his arms and lay there quietly. She still seemed rather depressed.

When he reached the rec room, Nosedive was relieved to see all of his teammates gathered there - each doing his or her own thing.

"Uh, everybody, I kinda have to tell you something," he said interrupting the stillness.

They all glanced up from their books or from the television, seeming only half-interested.

"Hey, you found Angel," Duke said as he got up and walked towards them.

But instead of leaning towards him as she usually did, Snow turned her head away and tucked it behind Nosedive's arm as if trying to hide.

"What's that for, sweetheart?" Duke asked with a laugh.

"Uh, Duke, now's not a good time," Nosedive said as he tried to figure out how to tell them.

"What's wrong with her?" Duke asked more seriously. "Is she sick?"

"I dunno. Maybe you should ask her."

Duke shot him a funny look.

" 'cause she can talk," Nosedive finally blurted out.

"What?" several of the ducks said at once as they suddenly gave him their full attention.

"Yeah," Nosedive continued awkwardly. "She can talk. Right, Snow?"

But Snow just kept her head hidden behind his arm.

"What kind of joke are you trying to pull?" Mallory asked. "It's not funny, Dive."

"It's not a joke!"

Nosedive pulled Snow from out behind his arm and held her up.

"Come on, Snow. Tell 'em!"

Snow hung in his hands like a limp doll, and she didn't even look at the other ducks.

"Dive, what have you been doing to her?" Duke asked angrily. "She looks ill."

"I didn't do anything," Nosedive insisted as he pulled Snow away before Duke could steal her from him. "Come on, Snow. You're really making me look bad here."

"Nope, you do that all on your own," Tanya laughed.

Nosedive's expression fell into disappointment, and Snow looked up long enough to notice this. She suddenly began to struggle, and she broke free from Nosedive. Running up onto the nearest table, Snow looked around at the other ducks.

"I can talk."

Then before any of them had time to recover from that shock, she darted off the table and under the nearest couch.

 **Author's Note: This is where this chapter ends, but don't worry, I'll get the next chapter uploaded soon! Please write reviews! Feedback is important to me. Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Growing Pains

Running up onto the nearest table, Snow looked around at the other ducks.

"I can talk."

Then before any of them had time to recover from that shock, she darted off the table and under the nearest couch. Nosedive tried to catch her, but she was too fast.

"There! Now do you believe me?"

The other ducks looked at each other with stunned expressions. This creature that they had assumed was just a wild animal, was in fact…an intelligent being?"

Nosedive crouched down by the couch and tried to coax Snow to come out. Grin walked over and lifted the couch up. Wildwing grabbed Snow by the scruff of the neck and lifted her into the air before she could run away.

"How long have you been able to talk?"

Snow looked around at them nervously. Wildwing finally set her down on the table again, except that this time it was surrounded by all of the ducks, so she couldn't escape.

"Well?" Wildwing persisted. "Do you understand the question?"

"I understand," Snow answered as she stood tensely in the center of the table. "I have only started speaking today."

"But how long have you known how to speak?"

Snow shook her head.

"I learned from you."

Wildwing sat back and glanced at Tanya who seemed as bewildered by this as he was.

"What did you say earlier?" Nosedive asked Snow. "You asked a question or something."

"I asked…Why am I different? I am not like you. I saw my…my picture in the glass."

"You mean, your reflection?" Mallory asked.

"Yes, reflection," Snow repeated.

"Well, you're not a duck," Mallory replied. "You're some kind of cat from another universe."

"And you, you are ducks?" Snow asked timidly.

"Yes," Wildwing answered.

"But I am not?"

"No," Wildwing again answered.

This seemed to be a big concept for her - though none of them could understand why. Snow's head drooped, and she lay down very submissively on the table.

"Are you going to eat me?" she asked.

"Eat you?" Duke asked unable to hide a laugh. "Why on Earth would we do that?"

"Because I am not like you. Or maybe you will send me away."

This idea seemed to make her equally sad.

"Um, Snow, as long you behave yourself, we're not going to send you away…or eat you," Wildwing insisted. "It doesn't matter if you're a duck or not."

"It doesn't?" she asked lifting her head a little.

"No way, you belong to…I mean with us," Nosedive interjected. "Unless you wanna go back to your home planet that is."

"Home planet?" she repeated with a confused look. "But I have always lived with you."

"Uh, no, actually you haven't," Duke corrected. "You don't remember being on Jorark's ship? That's where Nosedive found you."

Snow didn't seem to understand what he was talking about.

"I have no memory of this. I thought that I always lived here, but I am not like you. I must have forgotten where I came from before. I only remember you."

"You must not have a very long memory then," Tanya said. " 'cause you've only been here a few weeks."

Snow's ears drooped.

"Are you going to send me back to this forgotten place?"

"No," Nosedive said quickly. "You're staying with us. Don't worry about it, Snow."

He reached out tentatively to pet her head, and she went to his hand, rubbing against it gently.

Wildwing called Tanya away from the table and over to the far side of the room.

"When you said that these cubs become attached to their pride, even if that means becoming attached to beings who are not the same species, I didn't realize that meant that she was going to start speaking our language and having a complex because she look different than us."

"I didn't know that's what it meant," Tanya said. "But maybe it's a good thing that she can speak our language."

"Yeah, except that Nosedive just told her that we could keep her forever, but we don't know that yet," Wildwing insisted.

Tanya suddenly hushed him, but it was too late. Snow was staring at them with her ears perked up. She ducked her head and lay back down on the table looking worried again. Tanya led Wildwing out of the room.

"I may have forgotten to mention that she has super-sensitive hearing," Tanya whispered.

Wildwing sighed.

"Yeah, that would have been good to know."

"I know what you mean about not knowing if she can stay, but it's part of her nature to become extremely attached to someone or a group of beings that she has the earliest memory of. If we don't reassure her now, she's going to be very depressed. Her whole existence depends on her 'pride,'" Tanya explained.

Wildwing rubbed the back of his neck.

"All right. But we're gonna set some rules right now. And if she can't follow them, then she can't stay."

Tanya nodded in agreement. Wildwing walked back into the rec room with her and headed straight for the table.

"I'm sorry if you overheard that," he said to Snow. "And I want you to stay with us, Snow. It's just that you have to follow some rules if you're going to stay."

Snow sat up, giving him her full attention.

"What do I have to do?"

"Well, the only thing that worries us is the fact that you're going to get bigger as you get older. Right now, it's very easy to keep you in the Pond because you're so small. But you're going to get bigger and stronger someday. And I want you to promise me that you're not going to hurt me or any of the other ducks, got it?"

"Hurt?" Snow repeated uncertainly.

"Great, it's the only thing that she doesn't understand," Mallory sighed.

"It means that you can't bite or scratch anyone," Tanya explained. "You could really hurt one of us even if you didn't mean to. Your claws are very sharp, and they will be dangerous when you get older."

Snow looked down at her paws.

"I can never use them?" she asked.

"Not on any of us," Wildwing insisted. "That's the rule."

"I don't want to…to hurt you," Snow finally managed to say.

"Of course, you don't," Duke interjected confidently. "We know that. This is just a precaution."

"Here's another rule - you can't ever…under any circumstances leave the Pond without permission from one of us, got it?"

"Yes, but are you going to leave?"

"Sometimes we have to, but just for a little while," Nosedive said. "And we always come back."

"What else?" Snow asked.

"You have to follow orders. Everyone on this team has to follow orders, or we wouldn't have a team at all," Wildwing said.

"I will, and I know that you are the leader," Snow insisted.

"You do?" Wildwing asked looking surprised.

"Lions on Earth have a social order too," Tanya said, looking at Wildwing. "It makes sense that she would look for and identify a leader, especially since she wants to be a part of our..uh, pride. I think she knows that she has to gain your acceptance before she can be allowed to stay."

"Well, you can stay as long as you follow those rules," Wildwing insisted.

Snow's ears perked up again, and her mood seemed to improve.

"I will, I will!"

* * *

Later that night, Snow seemed so grateful to Wildwing for allowing her to stay that she insisted on following him to his room that night. It wasn't until Wildwing opened the door to his room that he realized she had followed him. Snow bounded inside and jumped up on his bunk.

"Uh, Snow, it's great that you had such a good day, but maybe it's time for you to get your own bed."

Her tail drooped as did her ears.

"So you want me to leave?"

"Well," Wildwing began hesitantly.

Then suddenly an old pillow and an empty box caught his eye.

"No, but you are getting bigger. And someday you need to start sleeping in a bed of your own. Here," he said as he laid the pillow in the box and fluffed it up for her. "Why don't you try this just for tonight, okay?"

Snow jumped down from his bunk and climbed into the box. She walked over the pillow several times before finally settling down. Wildwing waited until she looked comfortable before he finished getting ready to sleep and climbed into his own bed.

He settled into a comfortable position on his back with one arm lying across his chest and the other resting beside him. Suddenly, he felt something soft and warm move beside him. Wildwing opened his eyes and saw Snow nestling in-between his arm and his side. She closed her eyes and quickly seemed to drift off to sleep.

"Well, maybe one more night won't hurt," Wildwing sighed with a faint smile.

* * *

After breakfast the next morning, Nosedive set a bowl of milk down in front of Snow has he had always done before, but this time, she merely stared at it.

"What's the hold up? You like milk, remember Snow?"

Snow leaned forward and began lapping up the milk with her tongue, but after a few minutes, she stopped.

"I can't eat anymore."

"But you just said that you were hungry?" Dive protested.

He sighed and opened the fridge to put the carton of milk away, but Snow suddenly pounced on one of the lower drawers. It slid open and Phil's T-bone steak appeared inside. Phil had been pushing himself to stay with the limits of his new diet this week, but he planned to reward himself at the end of the week with this steak.

Snow pounced on it hungrily and lifted it out onto the floor. Nosedive shut the refrigerator and watched somewhat nervously as Snow began to devour the raw steak. At that moment, Tanya and Duke walked into the galley. Their eyes were drawn to Snow, who seemed oblivious to everyone else.

"Well, I guess we know she's not a vegetarian," Duke said.

"Oh boy, Phil's gonna be mad," Tanya sighed.

"What do we do?" Nosedive asked, looking for their help.

"How long has it been since she's eaten anything?" Tanya asked.

"The last time I fed her some milk was before she disappeared a couple days ago, so I guess she's really hungry. I just kinda hoped she stick with milk for awhile longer."

Snow finally stopped and looked up. She seemed to realize that they were talking about her and didn't seem overly pleased.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"See, that steak actually belonged to someone else," Duke explained. "We were just storing it here for him."

"Sorry," Snow said as her ears drooped. "I was just so hungry."

"Well, you're not a baby anymore," Tanya said as she looked at Duke and Nosedive. "I guess you're going to need some more mature food. I'll go see what the Internet suggests for growing lion cubs."

"Aren't you going to finish?" Nosedive asked as he looked down at the small piece that left of the steak.

"What if someone else wants it?" Snow asked warily.

"Eh, trust me, no one else is going to eat it now," Duke reassured her. "It's all right. You can have it. Nosedive and I will stop by the store and get a new steak for Phil."

Mallory walked in at that moment and saw the red stains on Snow's white fur – not to mention the mess on the floor.

"Well, that was a fast change in diet. I hope you two will have an explanation ready for Phil for his missing steak."

"We'll handle it," Duke insisted.

Snow began cleaning her paws and her face with a guilty expression.

"You might want to disappear for a little while," Mallory suggested with a smile to Snow. "Phil's coming down here to talk to us about some publicity stunt in an hour or so."

Snow stared back at her with mixture of surprise and confusion.

"Disappear?"

"Yeah, you know that vanishing act you always pull when you don't want someone to find you?" Nosedive said. "How do you do that anyway? It's like you turn invisible…even from the Mask."

"I don't understand. Are you telling me to hide?"

"Anyone can hide," Duke said. "But you just completely disappear, Angel."

Snow still didn't seem to understand.

"Don't tell me that you've forgotten that too?" Mallory asked. "Don't you remember the times we looked and looked and couldn't find you? But then you'd just show up, as if by magic or something."

Snow shook her head.

"I can't disappear."

They stared at her in bewilderment until Duke finally realized…

"She's forgotten how. She's too old to do it anymore."

"But just last week she was disappearing to her heart's content," Mallory protested. "Is your memory always going to be this short-term?"

"No," Tanya said as she walked back into the conversation while staring at her Omnitool. "I finally have access to that information about her species that was encrypted. It says that leopantala have stages of growth, but the first two stages are very short in length. Snow has passed the first stage, which we could call infancy. Just as we don't remember being babies, neither does she. She can't do the same things that she could last week because she has grown out of those abilities. And even though she can't remember that stage of her life, her brain is now developed enough for her to process speech and to start retaining long-term memories."

"So how long is this second stage going to last?" Mallory asked.

"Well, this second stage, which I'm going to call her childhood, will last about two months."

"Two months?" the others repeated.

"Whoa, that's a short childhood," Nosedive said as he lifted Snow into his arms.

"Then what?" Duke asked.

"Then she'll go into a middle phase…sort of like being a teenager. She'll grow bigger, and she won't look like a cub anymore."

Duke covered Snow's ears as another question crossed his mind.

"Tanya, if she grows that fast, how long is her actual life span?"

Tanya brushed his hands away from Snow's ears.

"She can still hear you. And you don't have to worry about that. She may grow up quickly, but she could live to be seventy years old. She might even outlive us."

"What do you mean?" Snow asked. "I don't understand this 'outlive.'"

"Well, uh Snow, someday we're going to…" Mallory began reluctantly. "The truth is that everyone….well, everyone dies at some point. We can only live so long, and death is a natural part of life."

"Death?" Snow asked. "What's death?"

The ducks looked at each other hesitantly. Suddenly Grin walked into the galley to grab an apple from the counter. He stopped when he saw the others watching him. Nosedive walked over to Grin and thrust Snow into his arms.

"Here, ask Grin to explain it you. He's good at that kind of stuff."

Nosedive started to hurry away, but Grin grabbed his sleeve and restrained him.

"Explain what?"

"Death. What is death?" Snow asked again as she climbed up onto Grin's shoulder.

Grin sighed and thrust Nosedive into the nearest chair. Tanya, Mallory and Duke waited to see how their teammate would answer Snow.

Walking over to the sink, Grin picked up two pots and set them down on the table. Then he lifted Snow from his shoulder and set her down beside them.

"What do you see, little friend?"

"Flowers," Snow replied as she walked past them, shaking her small wings and causing the flowers to stir in a slight breeze.

"What are the flowers doing?" Grin asked.

Snow glanced at him with a confused expression and then studied the flowers closely.

"Growing?"

"Yes, growing. What do they need?"

"Water,"

"And…"

Snow looked at the flowers again and then back at the special lights that Tanya had positioned above them.

"Light."

"And…"

"Dirt?"

"Yes, dirt. It's their home. They need all of these things to stay alive."

Grin turned around and stretched his hand to catch hold of a pot on a shelf against the far wall. Then he carried it back to the others and set it down. Snow walked closer to it and sniffed it warily. It was also filled with soil, but the only things in the soil were the remnants of a dried up plant. Its leaves were shriveled and brown. It was utterly without color or beauty.

"This is death, little one. When flowers stop growing, they die. It no longer makes any difference whether I water this plant, or whether I give it light or soil. The same flowers that blossomed here before will not grow again. Although new flowers may grow in their place, the old ones will not come back."

Snow's ears were flattened against her head as she backed away from the dead plant. She glanced at Grin and the other ducks.

"And you're going to…to die?"

"Everyone does at some point, Angel," Duke assured her. "These bodies…they only work for so long."

Snow glanced back at the flowers.

"But if you take care of them, they don't die," she insisted. "I can help take care of you. I can fix things when parts of your bodies stop working."

"Healing? So you remember how to do that?" Mallory asked.

"Healing, yes. I can do that," Snow insisted eagerly.

"Even flowers that receive the best care don't last forever," Grin insisted. "And besides little friend, forcing life to go on when it is time to let go does more harm than good."

Snow's ears drooped.

"Will your time end soon?"

"Not likely, Angel," Duke said with a smile as he ruffled her fur.

She licked his hand and lifted her ears a bit, but an unsettled fear rested in her eyes.

* * *

About a month and a half passed as Snow continued to grow and soon she was the size of an Australian shepherd. At this point, she was still small enough for the ducks to pick up, and she could partially sit on their laps or at least sit beside them quite comfortably on couches.

She had grown more active and energetic. When Phil was busy in his office, the ducks had taken to letting her come upstairs to the hockey rink and play around with them on the ice. One such afternoon, the ducks were engaged in hockey practice, but Snow had been allowed to join.

Nosedive skated after Mallory as she guided the puck towards the goal. He tried to steal it, but Mallory skillfully maneuvered it away from him. Duke managed to catch her while she was distracted, and he stole the puck while quickly speeding past her.

But then Duke had to move quickly to avoid being boarded by Grin. He sailed the puck towards Tanya to let her take it, but Snow suddenly slid into their midst and seized the puck with her teeth, thrusting her body away from the ducks with her large back paws.

"That's not fair, Angel," Duke protested, though he smiled.

"Just remember, no claws on the ice!" Wildwing called from the goal.

Snow obeyed and kept her claws sheathed so she would not leave deep scratch marks in the ice. She had learned to use the pads on her large paws to slide and steer herself, but she often had to use her wings and her tail as well to steady herself.

As she slid over to Nosedive, she dropped the puck, and he took back possession of it. He took a shot when he skated close to the goal, but Wildwing blocked it.

"You'll have to be faster than that, Dive," Wildwing said, smiling.

"Just taking it easy on you, bro!"

Nosedive skated back to Snow and stopped.

"Thanks for the puck. You've definitely improved," he said. "At least you don't move like Bambi on ice now."

Snow stared back at him.

"What's a Bambi?"

"Something you'd probably eat," Mallory said with a laugh.

Snow still shot them both a look of confusion, but then her ears perked up, and she slid over behind Grin and hid as best she could.

The ducks watched with some surprise, but then they heard a door at the top of the Pond open and close. Phil walked in, talking on his phone, and waved to them. The ducks started to relax again, but then they saw Captain Klegghorn walk in behind Phil.

Wildwing skated closer to Grin.

"See if you can get her out of sight," he said. "We'll see what Klegghorn wants."

Grin nodded and slowly moved towards the exit with Snow hovering near him. When they reached the locker room, Grin punched the code for the elevator.

"Who was that other human?" Snow asked.

"He is a police officer. He enforces the law in this city," Grin explained.

"I thought Wildwing and the rest of you did that," Snow said. "Tanya said you help keep the city safe when you are not playing hockey."

Grin sighed.

"The humans need a little help sometimes."

"I know why I am not supposed to let the crazy one called Phil see me, but why should I hide from this police man?"

"Klegghorn does not like aliens," Grin answered simply. "He finally got used to us, but that took time. He would probably not be happy to see you, little friend."

"Not so little anymore," Snow said, drawing herself up and spreading her wings, though she had still not learned to use them.

"Exactly," said Grin.

 **Author's Note: I'll get the next chapter uploaded soon! Please write reviews! Feedback is important to me. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ready to Go

Snow rested on a soft cushion at the foot of Drake One in the stillness of the Pond. The ducks were out tonight as they often were. She still did not fully understand what it was they did beyond the magical silver door, but whatever it was it must be very important.

Sometimes they played a game called hockey, and she was allowed to watch them on the strange screen with moving pictures that they called a TV. But she had a distinct feeling that on other nights, it was something else entirely different that called them away. And it always began with the horrible alarm from Drake One.

Snow's ear twitched as her eyes opened. A distant sound from beyond the silver door told her that they were at last returning. With a stretch and a yawn, she stood up from the cushion and waited to make sure that it wasn't the strange creature known as Phil coming to look for the ducks. She'd been warned to stay out of sight when he arrived.

At last the door opened, and she saw the ducks emerge. Snow bounded up to greet them, but suddenly slid to a halt. Something was not right.

Wildwing took off running towards the infirmary with Grin close behind him, holding a limp figure in his arms. None of the other ducks even seemed to notice her as they followed with anxious expressions.

Snow dashed off down the hall, but even though she was fast, her short legs couldn't quite keep up with them. When she finally arrived at the infirmary, she saw the ducks laying Mallory out on one of the beds. Tanya seemed to be working frantically with the equipment.

Quite forgotten, Snow managed to climb up onto the bed herself. There she saw Mallory lying very still with a pained expression on her face. Strange ragged breaths came from her throat, and the sound made Snow's fur stand on end. She looked down and saw a deep wound in Mallory's left side.

"Move, Snow," Tanya insisted as she pushed her aside and carried a tray of surgical tools towards Mallory.

Being shoved aside, Snow found herself in Nosedive's hands as he lifted her from the bed. She felt him tremble as Tanya began to clean her teammate's wound. Wildwing thrust an oxygen mask onto Mallory's beak and spoke to her, as if trying to call her back to them.

A loud beeping resounded from one of the nearby machines. The sound stirred panic among the ducks strong enough that Snow could feel it pulsing through the room.

"Tanya, we're losing her!" Duke shouted as he stood over one of the machines.

Snow pulled free from Nosedive and jumped down onto the bed. She darted under Tanya's arms and nudged Mallory's side before she began to lick the deep gash.

"I said move!" Tanya ordered impatiently as she tried to return to her work.

Snow snarled as her eyes lit up suddenly with a fierce glow.

"NO! Let me do this!"

Tanya finally backed away, and Snow hovered over Mallory's side before finally seizing Mallory's wrist with her teeth and clamping down.

Several minutes passed in which the machine continued to beep rapidly. Snow's tail swished back and forth with a restless energy. The ducks watched with nervous anticipation until finally the machine suddenly slowed it pace. The beeping became regular again, and Mallory stirred even though her eyes didn't open.

Several of the ducks breathed a sigh of relief, and Snow finally released her bite on Mallory's wrist. But she leaned over Mallory's still wounded side protectively.

"I will take care of her," Snow insisted. "Trust me."

With that, she resumed licking Mallory's wound and nudging her arm with her head every once and awhile. The other ducks slowly backed off with Tanya still being the most reluctant.

Wildwing finally drew Tanya out into the hallway where the others waited.

"It'll be all right," he assured her.

"How do you know? It doesn't make sense at all."

Wildwing pointed to his knee.

"I don't know how. I just know she can do it."

Tanya sighed.

"I guess I was the one in the way. But even after you told me about your knee, I still didn't believe…"

"Hey, don't sweat it, Tanya. I reacted the same way when I saw her attacking Wing's knee," Nosedive reminded her.

"I've never seen her that angry before," Tanya said.

"Well, she scratched me when I tried to get her to leave Wing alone," Dive continued.

"It's in her nature," Grin insisted. "This healing…this need to protect us…I sense that it dominates her spirit."

"I'm going to go back in and sit with Mallory for a while," Wildwing announced. "You all should get some rest."

He entered the infirmary as the others left after a moment's hesitation. Wildwing's gaze rested on Mallory's face…at least she seemed only to be sleeping now. As he looked down at her side, he saw with amazement that it already looked far better than it had a few minutes ago. The blood had almost all be washed away and even the gash seemed much less deep than it had been. Snow was resting beside Mallory at the moment, seemingly worn out with her own efforts.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"Instinct. I have to get rid of the pain…the things that are wrong. Because she is…" Snow struggled for the word.

"Part of your pride?"

Snow shook her head.

"No, there is another word you use. You do not call the others your pride, do you?"

"I guess not. We're a team… a family even."

Snow's ears perked up.

"That is the word. _Family_. Mallory is family."

Wildwing studied the small, winged creature. She was so different from them, but he knew and understood the look in her eyes.

"Thank you, Snow. And look, don't hold anything against Tanya. She was just afraid, like all of us."

"I understand, but if I had waited too long, it would have been too late. She was…"

"Dying?"

"Yes, so this is what it feels like to be close to death," Snow said as she stood up and looked at Mallory.

Wildwing cast his own worried glance at Mallory. He had come too close to losing one of his team tonight.

"How did it happen?" Snow asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"We were fighting with some our enemies downtown. Mallory jumped right into the middle of the fight. And the next thing we knew she'd been seriously wounded."

"Where did these enemies come from?"

"It depends. Tonight it was Dr. Droid and some crazed robots of his. Usually it's Dragaunus and the other Saurians."

Snow stared at him.

"I did not know what you did outside those doors was so dangerous. Why do you face these enemies when things like this can happen?"

"It's our job to stop them."

"But you could get hurt, like Mallory."

"It's a risk we have to take to keep the universe safe."

"Then at least let me come with you."

"No."

"But…I could help," she insisted straightening up.

"I said _no_. And I don't want to hear anymore about it."

Snow's ears drooped, but she lay back down beside Mallory without saying a word.

* * *

Two days passed, and although Mallory remained in the infirmary, she quickly began to regain her strength. Her movements were stiff and awkward, but she could walk around a little when Tanya let her.

"Oh, I hate this," Mallory groaned one afternoon as she sat on the bed restlessly. "I haven't been able to train or play hockey for days. I can't stand anymore waiting."

"If you open that wound again, Wildwing will stick you on the bench for eternity," Tanya warned. "Just let it heal, and then you can do whatever you want."

"But how long until it heals? Dragaunus could take over the world tomorrow, and I'd still be stuck in here."

The door opened as Snow walked inside and jumped onto a chair beside Mallory's bunk. Tanya motioned for Mallory to drop the subject.

"Oh, hey, furball," Mallory said forcing a smile.

"How are you feeling?"

"Good enough to complain," Tanya scoffed.

"So you are better?"

"Affirmative," Mallory sighed. "But still not up to regulation standards."

"Sorry, I can't make it happen any faster," Snow apologized.

"You've already done more than enough. Let's talk about something else instead.

"Like how Nosedive is redecorating your bunk?"

"What?!"

"Yes. He said he would make it pretty for you."

"How?" Mallory asked suspiciously.

"He's using some kind of white paper. It's strung all over the place."

"Thank you, Snow. Now I know exactly what to do with all of this spare time."

Snow cast a questioningly glance at her face.

"What?"

"Plot a surprise of my own for Nosedive, of course. I've got to _thank_ him somehow for his thoughtfulness….And Snow, this will be our secret, right?"

Snow perked up her ears with a smile as her tail swished happily.

"Yes, our secret."

Mallory studied her carefully.

"You seem bigger than I remember."

Snow looked down at herself.

"I don't feel any bigger."

Tanya walked over and picked her up, grunting slightly.

"You're heavier. That's for sure."

Putting Snow down on the scale in the corner of the room, Tanya watched the digital screen in silence until a number flashed repeatedly.

"No wonder you feel heavy," Tanya said. "You weigh over sixty pounds."

"Is that a problem?" Snow asked as she stepped off of the scale.

"It just means you're growing. And you'll be doing a lot of that over the next month and a half, which probably means you'll be eating more. Guess I'll need to make another grocery run soon."

"Send Nosedive," Mallory suggested. "Apparently he doesn't have enough to do if he has time to _redecorate_ my bunk."

* * *

After a few more weeks, Mallory fully recovered from her injuries, and the Mighty Ducks were back to their usual routine of playing hockey and fighting crime. But Phil had arranged for them to play a series of games out of state with an amateur team that wasn't in the league. Wildwing had started to refuse, but Phil had already made all of the arrangements, so the ducks agreed to leave the Pond behind for a few weeks to play the games… if Phil would stay behind.

"I can't believe my team is in Colorado, and I'm not there with them. Why am I still in Anaheim again?"

Phil Pomfeather walked out of the elevator onto the lower level of the Pond with his phone pressed against his ear.

"Make sense, boobie. Why do I have to restock your fridge with meat when no one is here to eat it? And whatever happened to my steak? It's still missing."

A distant voice answered him as Phil walked down the galley and shoved the grocery bags in the refrigerator.

"Just remember, boobala, you owe me for this. How am I supposed to make sure that my team wins if I'm not there to support them?"

A groan issued from the phone's speaker.

"No, it's not just about the merchandising opportunities…but since you brought it up, you guys did go to the autograph signing I set up, didn't you?"

The voice responded again; this time sounding more impatient. Phil walked down the hall and back to the elevator.

"Yes, I'm leaving already! I'm getting on the elevator. Now answer my question about the autographs."

The elevator doors closed and the Pond was silent once again. Snow peeked out from behind the other side of Drake One. It was becoming more and more difficult to hide from Phil when he appeared so unexpectedly.

Running down the nearest hall, Snow galloped to the galley and pulled the door of the fridge open. She dragged the sacks onto the floor and began to rummage through them. The ducks had left, originally believing that she would have enough to eat during the week and a half that they would be gone.

Even though she was slightly embarrassed about it, Snow had found it necessary to contact them with a spare com and tell them that she had eaten everything in a matter of four days. Her appetite was increasing at an incredible rate. In fact, the past week had been rather scary for her.

Not only was she alone in the Pond, but she was constantly tired or hungry. She tried to ignore the pains in her stomach, but she felt weak and ill when she didn't eat. There were already strange pains shooting through her body at random times during the day, and when she was finally able to ignore the hunger or the odd aches, she found herself falling asleep constantly.

She inspected the meat that Phil had left unknowingly for her. A terrible feeling told her that she could consume all of this in a matter of days – which would still leave her hungry before the ducks returned. Snow closed her eyes and pushed one of the bags back into the fridge. It would have to be enough. She couldn't allow herself to eat too much.

"What's wrong with me?" she said aloud to the silence.

* * *

"Snow! Where are you, girl?" Nosedive called as he stepped off the elevator.

"Feels good to be back," Tanya sighed.

Nosedive looked around and scratched his head.

"Angel? We're home," Duke called.

No answer.

"Snow?" Nosedive tried again.

"Huh, I wonder where she is."

Wildwing activated the mask and scanned the Pond.

"Maybe she's asleep in one of our bunks. Split up and look for her. Make sure she's okay."

The team wandered away towards their own rooms, searching the hallways as they went. All seemed still and quiet - much like the Pond had been before Snow came to live with them.

* * *

After another half hour, they met up near Tanya's lab without a trace of their friend. Nosedive looked around worriedly.

"I don't get it, man. Where is she?"

Wildwing activated the mask again and searched the surrounding halls.

"There's movement inside your lab, Tanya. It could be Snow."

Tanya activated the door, and the ducks hurried inside. A glass beaker was knocked to the ground and shattered in front of them. The ducks pulled their weapons.

"Show yourself!" Mallory ordered.

A sigh followed her command, and a moment later a large shape under a tarp shifted slightly. The shape grew larger and rose from the floor as the ducks kept their weapons fixed on it. Finally the tarp slipped and a familiar furry face appeared.

"Sn..Snow?" Nosedive stuttered.

A cat large enough to tackle a mountain lion emerged. The ducks gasped.

"Whoa! But you were…" Duke estimated the size with his hands, remembering when she had been small enough for him to hold in his arms. "That was just a week ago. How…?"

Snow looked down at her large paws with a nervous gaze. Suddenly a loud groan cut into the silence from her stomach. She sat down with her shoulders hunched.

"You ate all of the meat in the fridge even after I sent Phil to buy more?" Wildwing asked incredulously.

"I was hungry. I'm sorry. Please I haven't had anything all day…can I have more?"

Tanya pulled Wildwing back out into the hall.

"We'd better get her something," she whispered.

"What?! She'll eat the whole store out of meat, Tanya. We can't keep feeding her like this."

"It may not be permanent. I think she's going through a growing phase. I thought we still had some time before she reached her adolescent stage, but she must be maturing early. Once her growth stabilizes, she won't eat as much."

"Well, find out how soon that's going to be," Wildwing insisted. "I'll send Grin and Mallory to the store."

Tanya nodded and entered her lab once again. Wildwing called Grin and Mallory out on their errand to the store.

Duke moved closer and stroked her back before running her fingers over her wings, which had also grown to impressive lengths.

"You gonna be able to use these soon, Angel?"

Snow flexed her wings, but looked at them with uncertainty.

"I don't know how."

"Aw, it's easy…at least I think it is. You just flap them right?" Nosedive suggested.

"How do you know?" she asked. "You don't have wings."

"Yeah, but we're ducks. We oughta know something, right Duke?"

Duke shrugged.

Snow spread her wings and stood up as she began to flap them, faster and faster. The ducks backed away quickly, but Snow only managed to create a strong wind that knocked a test tube from a tray. Tanya only just caught it before it shattered on the floor.

"Okay, enough already! No flying in the lab."

The massive wings froze and folded up against Snow's side.

"Guess it's harder than it looks on TV," Dive shrugged.

* * *

Weeks passed, and Snow's appetite began to slow down, but her growth still seemed to be accelerating. Her body had grown more muscular, and if she stood on her hind paws, she could reach a height of six feet.

On a Saturday afternoon, Snow sat in the rec room on a large rug in front of the TV with remote in front of her. She had learned how to manipulate this magic box by watching the ducks, and it kept her entertained when she was alone in the Pond.

 _The herd of zebras graze peacefully on the Savannah, unaware of the predator stalking them from the tall grass._

Duke walked into the room from the hall with a book in his hands and Tanya entered behind him, carrying a new scientific journal. They both stopped when they saw Snow watching a nature documentary.

 _The lioness begins her ambush, and the zebras run right into her trap._

"Uh, whatcha watchin' there?" Duke asked.

"These animals look a lot like me," Snow said as she stood up from the rug. "They hunt other animals in this distant land called Africa. I think I could be a hunter like them."

The two ducks watched as the lioness took down a zebra and sunk her teeth into its throat. Duke rubbed his neck, and Tanya cringed.

"Yeah, well, this is Anaheim," Tanya said. "It's a city, not the wild. We can't exactly have predators chasing down prey here."

Snow's wings drooped.

"What good is it for me to have these claws and my teeth if I can't ever use them? I want to chase and catch things like these lions."

The two ducks looked at each other in uncertainty for a moment.

"Maybe I could rig something up for you to chase in the training room," Tanya said hesitantly. "Would that help you feel better?"

"I can use my claws and teeth on it?" Snow asked.

"Yeah, sure," Tanya said.

"Then yes," Snow said eagerly. "I want to train to be able to do what these lions do."

"Maybe Dive and I could have another go at teaching you to use those wings," Duke said. "You're much more than just some wild cat after all. I'm pretty sure those lions can't fly."

* * *

"I'm still not certain this is a good idea," Wildwing said as he joined the other ducks in the training room to see what Tanya had set up for Snow.

"Ducks are born to play hockey, and cats are born to hunt," Tanya answered. "We can't keep asking her to forget what she is. Isn't better if we help her find a way to spend her energy without anyone getting hurt?"

"And what if she decides that she likes hunting a little too much?" Wildwing asked. "We can't forget how big she's getting. She's not a house cat that's going to be content stalking birds and mice."

Duke and Mallory shared a look, but they kept silent.

"What?" Wildwing asked.

"Well, have you considered letting her come with us on missions?" Mallory asked. "She could be a useful asset."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing the looks on Siege and Chameleon's faces if we showed up with Angel," Duke said, using his own nickname for Snow.

"As tempting as that is, suppose she can't distinguish between fighting and killing?" Wildwing said. "What if we're facing Dragaunus and his goons or some human criminals? I don't want to see a fight turn into a bloodbath."

"She could get hurt too," Tanya added. "She may not be ready for a fight."

"Exactly," Wildwing agreed. "There's too many ways things could go wrong. That's why I've told her she can't come with us."

Duke and Mallory let the subject drop, and the doors opened as Nosedive and Grin entered with Snow.

"Is it ready, Tanya?" Snow asked eagerly.

"Yes, I think so. I just have to push this button, and some robots will be activated. You can chase and attack them to your heart's content."

"Where did the robots come from?" Mallory asked.

"They're part of our old defenses… the ones Dragaunus tried to take over that time his henchmen invaded our headquarters. After that incident, I decided to update our security system. But I kept these robots in storage."

"They won't shoot at Snow, will they?" Nosedive asked.

"No, I reprogramed them."

"Good, 'cause I remember what it was like to be shot at by those things, and I'd rather not experience that again," Wildwing said with a sigh.

Snow bounded up to Tanya's side.

"I'm ready. Send them out."

"Okay, but I should warn you that these robots are made out of titanium. They won't be easy to take down."

Snow only swished her tail eagerly, so Tanya stepped back and pressed the button on her remote.

Rising from different corners of the room, three robots were activated. They were round in the center with two thin arms that extended outward and three legs that floated above the ground.

They moved out into the center of the room and seemed to be scanning the area. Nosedive looked down to watch Snow, but she was gone. He caught sight of her white fur darting behind some boxes that Tanya had stacked to one side of the room.

Suddenly the robots turned to the ducks, and these words emanated in robotic voices.

"Intruders, intruders…exterminate, exterminate."

"Uh, Tanya…" Duke began.

The robots raised their arms and fired as the ducks scattered.

"Maybe I should have done a test run first," Tanya admitted as she hid behind an over-turned table with Mallory.

"Shut those things down before Snow gets hurt!" Wildwing called from the other side of the room.

Tanya pressed another button, but robots would not deactivate.

"It's not working!" she said as panic crept into her tone.

"I guess these robots didn't like being retired," Nosedive said.

"Stay behind me!" Wildwing ordered, activating his shield as the robots fired again.

Amidst the blasts, another sound arose, the wrenching and crushing of metal. Duke looked up from his hiding place and saw that Snow had clamped her jaws down upon one of the robot's arms.

With tremendous force, she flung it into another robot and knocked them both aside. The third turned to fire upon her, but she darted away with agile twists and turns to avoid being hit. Then breaking into a run, she leapt up against the wall and pushed off, flinging herself back towards the robot. Her body spun in midair, and she landed upon the robot with claws extended.

After landing upon it and rolling across the floor with it, she rose and chased down the other two robots, one with an arm hanging useless at its side. They fired upon her with their remaining weapons, but Snow did not halt or turn aside. She grabbed one by the leg and smashed it against the wall. And as for the last, she snatched it up in her jaws and bit down. The sound of crunching metal made the ducks wince as they started to emerge from cover.

Snow tossed the last broken robot upon the floor and sat down with her head held high. The ducks walked closer. Pieces of the robots lay scattered everywhere, and there was a dent in the wall where Snow had smashed the second robot. The robots were all marked by places where she had delivered a crushing bite or slashed them with her claws.

Mallory picked up one of the arms that had nearly been bitten in half.

"How did you do this?"

"My teeth and claws are strong," Snow answered, seeming pleased with herself.

Duke ran his hand over the dent in the wall, and then he turned back to Snow and inspected her back and legs.

"I coulda sworn I saw some of those blasts hit you when you charged right for 'em," he said.

"It didn't hurt," Snow protested.

"You mean you were hit?" Tanya asked in surprise. "But that doesn't make sense."

Wildwing activated the mask and scanned Snow's body.

"I cannot determine the substance that her fur or her teeth and claws are made out of. But perhaps she has a natural armor that protects her body. And her teeth and claws may not be like those of the creatures of this planet."

"Obviously not," Grin said, looking down at the robots.

"I'm sorry the robots went nuts again, guys," Tanya sighed.

"I thought they were perfect," Snow said, rubbing up against Tanya.

"You were perfect, Snow-girl!" Nosedive said. "That was awesome! You should totally come with to fight the bad guys, right bro?"

Wildwing shot him a look, and Nosedive's excitement faded.

"Snow cannot leave the Pond," Wildwing said. "She's proved herself to be a capable hunter, but we don't need a hunter on the team."

Snow laid her ears back against her head and lowered her head as her tail drooped. Nosedive started to protest, and Snow slipped away from the ducks.

When she reached the hall outside the training room, she realized that Duke had followed her.

"Someone ought to say thanks for what you did in there," he said with a faint smile.

"But you heard Wildwing. It doesn't matter. I'm not needed."

"He's just tryin' to protect you," Duke said.

Snow shot him a confused look.

"You all saw what I was able to do in there… and I'm fine."

"I'm not talking about getting hurt in a fight. Look, we've kept you a secret here sweetheart. But if you start going out there, the humans are gonna find out about you. And some of 'em might get a little nervous... or a little too curious. Trust me, we know what it's like to be different."

Snow nodded, but she said,

"I still want to be useful. And I feel that I could do so much more out there."

"You're doin' plenty of good right here," Duke assured her as he stroked her head.

Snow let the discussion go, but when Duke walked away, a look of secret longing entered back into her gaze.

* * *

 **Sorry this chapter took awhile to finish! If you like it, please leave reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rite of Passage

A few weeks after the incident with the robots, the ducks had been called out by Drake One to another face off with Dragaunus' goons. About an hour after their departure, Tanya and Grin returned alone to the Pond.

Their steps were hurried and determined as they approached Drake One. Tanya immediately began entering commands.

"Perhaps Wildwing and Nosedive will find something from the Aerowing," Grin said.

"We've never been able to find the Raptor that way before," Tanya sighed. "Duke and Mallory may not have much time. We don't know what Dragaunus will do."

Grin turned and looked around the room.

"Snow has not come out to greet us."

"She's probably sleeping," Tanya said dismissively as she focused her attention on Drake One. "It's probably best if we don't worry her with this."

Drake One began to beep with a call from the Aerowing, and Tanya pressed a button to accept it.

"Anything?" Wildwing asked.

"No, not yet," Tanya said.

"We've got to keep trying."

Suddenly another message began to come through, and Tanya opened it as well.

But this time, beside Wildwing's picture, the image of Dragaunus appeared.

"Greetings, ducks. Missing a few of your friends, are you?"

Draguanus stepped aside, and the bound figures of Duke and Mallory were plainly visible in the background. Gags were tied around their beaks, and they were hanging over a container of steaming liquid.

"They're going to become our guests…permanently, unless you do as I command. Over the past year, I've dealt with enough of your interference. Tonight, Wildwing is going to surrender to me with the Mask, and in return, I'll reunite you with your friends."

Duke and Mallory seemed to shake their heads in the background as they strained at their restraints. Dragaunus stepped back into view, and his eyes glowed red as he spoke.

"Come to the parking lot outside the abandoned warehouse at midnight, and don't be late."

The message ended, and Wildwing's face appeared on the monitor. He removed the Mask and looked down at it with a weary gaze.

"This is just another trap, bro," Nosedive's voice insisted from behind his brother. "Old Lizard Lips is tryin' to pull another one on us."

"He's right," Tanya said. "Dragaunus won't release Duke and Mallory even if you do surrender."

"I can't leave them to Dragaunus," Wildwing said with a determined tone. "The only way to ensure that they have some hope is for me to do as he says. But that doesn't mean the rest of you can't try to find the Raptor and rescue them. We'll meet you outside the mall."

His message ended, and Tanya glanced at Grin. She turned back to Drake One and finished a few more things before closing out of the programs that she had opened.

"Let's go then," she sighed.

They made their way down to the Migrator, but when they reached it, Grin paused. Tanya poked her head back out of the door when she saw that he wasn't following.

"Come on, we don't have much time!"

Grin remained unmoved for several seconds as he continued to look around though he could not seem to find what he was looking for.

"I sense we are being followed."

Tanya stepped down and searched the hanger.

"Snow? Are you there?"

After waiting and searching, there was still no sign of their furry friend. Tanya sighed and walked back onto the Migrator.

"We're all on edge tonight. That's all it is," she said, and Grin followed her with furrowed brow and silence.

Tanya started up the Migrator and began driving it out of the secret tunnel. As the vehicle exited the Pond and entered into the night air, moonlight caught its outline. And if anyone had looked beneath it, they would have seen a strange shape clinging to its base with wings stretching flat against its back.

* * *

When Tanya and Grin parked the Migrator outside the mall, Nosedive and Wildwing were already standing outside the Aerowing in the midst of an argument.

But as Tanya and Grin stepped out to meet them, Wildwing entered the Migrator and rolled out a duck cycle.

"We don't have a lot of time. Tanya, do you have anything on the Raptor's location?"

"I think so, but we can't leave you to face Dragaunus alone."

"It may not be the best plan, but we have to let him set the terms this time. I'll try to distract him long enough for you to rescue Duke and Mallory."

"I'm not leaving you, bro. You can't do this alone!" Nosedive cut in.

"Duke and Mallory need your help, Dive," Wildwing insisted. "I know that you and I have always been a team, but this is bigger than the two of us now. Please, go with Tanya and Grin."

Nosedive started to protest again, but movement and a flash of white behind the Migrator caught his attention. Snow stuck her head out far enough for Nosedive to see her, and a look of understanding passed between them.

Nosedive lowered his head and backed away from Wildwing.

"All right, but once we rescue Duke and Tanya, we're coming to help you, bro. Don't give up on us, ok?"

Wildwing hesitated, but after a moment, he nodded.

"Take care of each other," he said, looking at the three of them.

Before they could speak again, or Nosedive could change his mind, Wildwing climbed onto a duckcycle and rode off.

"Come on," Tanya urged. "We've got to find Duke and Mallory while the signal lasts, and the sooner we rescue them, the sooner we can help Wildwing. Let's get the Migrator inside the Aerowing, and then we need to fly to the east side of the city."

Nosedive started to follow her and Grin, but then he turned back around. He caught a glimpse of white disappearing into the darkness.

"Watch over him for me, Snow," he said under his breath.

* * *

Wildwing rode to the parking lot outside the old warehouse. His stomach felt like it was being tied in knots, and his heart was pounding. _I have to buy them time to rescue Duke and Mallory, but I also can't provoke Dragaunus to the point where he just decides to kill them._

In his heart, Wildwing believed that he would lose the chance to escape this fight. Whatever happened, Dragaunus would strike for blood, and Wildwing felt pretty sure that it was him the Saurian overlord wanted dead.

As he parked the duckcycle, Wildwing raised the puck launcher embedded in his armor. Streetlights flickered above him, but he could not see any of the Saurians around.

Standing in the center of the parking lot, Wildwing suddenly heard the silence interrupted by the clanking of hunter drones. They encircled him as Dragaunus and Wraith teleported into view.

"The fool came as you predicted, my lord," Wraith said in his deep voice as a malicious grin appeared on his scaly face.

"But not to surrender, it seems," Dragaunus noted, sounding amused, as he surveyed Wildwing's defensive stance.

"No, not to surrender," Wildwing said.

A light flashed in Dragaunus' eyes.

"Then your teammates will die … _all_ of them. Or did you think I didn't know that they would attempt a rescue? They will all be captured and killed. But you are free to go if you wish… only I will have the Mask first."

Wildwing's expression grew stern and determined.

"You underestimate my team."

"And you overestimate them," Dragaunus insisted, sounding bored. "They will fall into my trap, and you cannot help them this time."

Dragaunus started to turn as he gestured for Wraith to take the Mask, but Wildwing raised his puck launcher higher and fired a shot over the two Saurians.

"We're not done here," he said. "I didn't come to surrender. I came to finish the fight we started back on the Raptor over the year ago… the fight between you and me, Dragaunus."

Dragaunus turned and looked at him with a cold gaze.

"Or is the great Saurian overlord too cowardly to fight one duck?" Wildwing challenged.

The eyes of the Saurian glowed with a fierce red light, and smoke rose from his nostrils. But Wildwing stood his ground.

"Come and take the Mask from me if you can."

Dragaunus' tail lashed behind him.

"I will have the Mask, and your _life_."

The battle began before Wildwing had time to second guess his choices. Dragaunus threw energy blasts at him, which Wildwing deflected with his shield, but at other moments, they were locked in hand-to-hand conflict. Wildwing fired pucks, but those never kept Dragaunus at bay for very long. They wrestled and struggled, and it took all that Wildwing had to withstand the power of his larger enemy.

When they broke from each other in the midst of battle, Dragaunus waved his hand, and Wildwing activated his shield again as he found himself being fired upon by the drones. Distracted by these attacks, he did not see Dragaunus' tail whip out towards his legs. He was knocked off balance and thrown to the ground.

Dragaunus seized the armor covering his left arm and squeezed it until the puck launcher in it was crushed. Then he kicked Wildwing in the stomach to prevent him from being able to get up.

"It's time for you to face your failure as a leader. Canard wasted no time attacking and _destroying_ my master tower, but you and your team have hunted me for over a year on this pathetic planet without conquering the Raptor."

"We've beat you before," Wildwing groaned.

Dragaunus laughed.

"You may defeat me time and again, but still I rise out of the shadows. Tonight I will show you that I have only been waiting for the time to strike."

He drew out a strange curved weapon that came to a sharp point and held it over Wildwing.

The sound of a sudden roar cut through the tension and caused Dragaunus to pause. He turned in time to see the crumpled shape of one his own drones being thrown in his direction. Dragaunus darted to one side with an expression of rage and confusion, but a white shape shot out of the darkness like a ghost and moved to stand over Wildwing.

Dragaunus started as he gazed upon the brilliant white fur and wings of a gigantic lioness with eyes that glowed with a fiery light.

"Snow?" Wildwing began as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. "What are you doing here?"

"This enemy cheats," she growled, not taking her eyes from Draganus. "I smell dragon's blood in his veins. He will not give you the fair fight you seek."

"If you were going to disobey my orders, you should have at least gone to help the others," Wildwing said.

Snow turned and looked back at him for just a moment.

"You came here to face death alone. I could not let you do that."

Wildwing dropped his questions and turned his attention back to the Saurians. Dragaunus had stepped back, but Wraith had drawn closer to hear his lord's command.

"I do not know how you managed to find and claim a leopantala," Dragaunus finally said. "But this beast cannot save you. On the contrary, it will be the means of your destruction."

Wraith moved forward, and Snow flattened her ears against her head and bared her teeth. But Wraith began to move his staff around as he chanted strange words.

Snow continued to snarl at him at first, but as Wildwing crouched beside her, he saw a change in the light in her eyes. It grew dull, and she seemed to become confused.

"Snow… Snow!" Wildwing called as he started to place his hand on her back, but she snarled and turned on him with open jaws.

Wildwing stumbled back, but she slowly advanced with the same distant expression.

"You didn't even realize what kind of monster you were keeping for a pet," Dragaunus gloated. "These dumb beasts are easily controlled."

He leaned closer to Wraith.

"Have the creature finish him. I tire of this."

Wraith began to chant louder as he stretched out his hand towards Snow. She froze as if listening as her ears perked up, but she continued to glare at Wildwing and then slowly to stalk towards him with claws extended.

"Snow, don't do this," Wildwing urged. "I know who you are. You're part of our family. And this is wasn't what you want."

The great cat slowed her pace, but she still snarled at him.

"You don't have to listen to _them_ ," Wildwing persisted. "You're stronger than that, because you're not a wild animal. You're one of us."

A mist seemed to fade suddenly from Snow's eyes, and she shook her head as the expression of a vicious beast was replaced by the remorse of an intelligent being. She seemed to come to herself and realize what had happened.

"Wildwing," she said softly. "I'm sorry. Forgive me."

Wildwing stretched out his hand again and dared to draw her to him in an embrace. Dragaunus shoved Wraith forward as his anger returned.

"Take her, and end this!"

Wraith adjusted his robe and began to chant louder, but this time, Snow turned back to them and growled without any sign of growing confused. Wildwing rose to his feet, wincing slightly in pain, but standing firm beside Snow.

"This cannot be," Wraith said as he drew back, seeing that his spell no longer held any power over her. "To resist the powers of our Saurian ancestors requires gifts beyond the average beast of her kind."

Dragaunus shoved him aside before he could say more, and he unleashed an energy blast upon them. Wildwing activated his shield, but he prepared to be knocked off his feet. Yet, the force from the blast never seemed to hit him. He looked again and saw that Snow had risen on her back legs. Her wings were outstretched before him, and she seemed to beat back whatever was thrown their way with great strength.

Wraith kindled a fire ball in his hands, and Snow lowered herself on all fours as her gaze studied it. He threw it at her, but it seemed to break upon her fur without burning or wounding her. Her eyes shone brighter, and opening her mouth, she unleashed blue and green fire upon the Saurians as if it was as natural as breathing.

Dragaunus and Wraith drew back and activated their teleporters as the drones rushed in to provide cover, but Snow's fire and strength made short work of them. But when the night grew quiet again, the Saurians had escaped, and Wildwing and Snow were left alone.

Wildwing walked in front of Snow and stared down at her.

"I don't suppose you can explain that last bit? I mean, when did you learn to breathe fire?"

Snow looked up at him with a calm, satisfied gaze.

"I have often felt a strange warmth stirring inside of me, but when that sorcerer used it against me, I suddenly understood what could be done with it."

She grew thoughtful and quiet. Wildwing crouched down again beside her.

"Look, Snow, I was wrong to try to keep you locked away. I see now that I should have trusted you to come and fight with us. I hope you can understand that I was only trying to keep you safe."

She looked into his gaze, but her wings and tail drooped.

"No, you were right," she said softly. "I almost lost myself tonight. If I had hurt you, it would have been unforgivable. I did not imagine such evil was possible, but you saw the danger for me and for others."

"But you overcame it," Wildwing reminded her. "And Wraith can't control you anymore, right?"

"He cannot, but there is great evil in his master. I will have to guard myself better in the future … _if_ I am to come out into this world with you again."

She looked at him as if seeking permission, and he nodded as he stood up.

"We need to find the others and make sure they're okay. It sounds like Dragaunus prepared a trap for them. I just hope they managed to escape."

Wildwing activated his com, but as he did so, a message was sent to him without him having initiated his own message.

"Yo, Wing, are you there?"

"Dive, yeah, are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, and we got Duke and Mal too. Tanya was able to trace Dragaunus' message to a general location, and we searched until we found the Raptor. Siege and Chameleon tried to give us some trouble, but we took care of them."

"Good, get back to the Pond then, and we'll meet you there."

"You and Snow?"

Wildwing smiled.

"You knew?"

"Duh! You think I woulda let you go by yourself?"

 ***Note from the Author: I'm so sorry this has been so late in coming. I've been sick and very busy. But I'll try to write the next chapter soon!**


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